A new species of Haliclona (Demospongiae: Haplosclerida: Chalinidae) from southeastern Brazil and the first record of Haliclona vansoesti from the Brazilian coast

Abstract

In this paper we describe two species of the cosmopolitan sponge genus Haliclona from Rio de Janeiro State, SE Brazil, one of which is new to science and the other a new record to Brazil. Haliclona (Rhizoniera) fugidia sp. nov. is brownish-pink, salmon or cream, thickly encrusting, without oscular tubes and tangential ectosomal reticulation. Choanosomal skeleton is a mostly unispicular ladder-like reticulation of oxeas, very organized near the sponge surface and denser and more disorganized in the interior of the sponge. Haliclona (Halichoclona) vansoesti de Weerdt et al., 1999 was originally described from the Caribbean. It has a very loose connection between ectosome and choanosome, a whitish translucent ectosome combined with a purplish choanosome, a cavernous structure and a friable or crispy consistency. The conspecificity of SE Brazilian and Caribbean populations of H. (Halich.) vansoesti was verified through phylogenetic analysis of small subunit 18S rRNA (18S) and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree constructed with 18S sequences indicates that specimens of H. (Halich.) vansoesti from Rio de Janeiro were phylogenetically closer to the same species from the Caribbean than to other species of Haliclona. Although not available for H. (Halich.) vansoesti from the Caribbean, COI sequences of our specimens were also quite distinct from those of other Haliclona species. Molecular identification based on DNA sequences is a useful complement to traditional morphology-based taxonomy, especially in highly plastic sponges such as Haliclona spp. and other haplosclerids.

Two new species of Haliclona (Demospongiae: Haplosclerida: Chalinidae) from north-eastern Brazilian coastal waters and oceanic islands

“…(Halich.) vansoesti (de Weerdt, 2000; Muricy et al, 2015) clearly sets this species apart from H. (S.) moraesi sp. nov., which can also develop tubular projections, but never with translucent walls.…”

“…The knowledge on Haliclona spp. along the Brazilian coast remains deficient, with 15 species recorded, nine of them from coastal waters of north-eastern Brazil, but none from Fernando de Noronha Archipelago or Rocas Atoll (Muricy et al, 2011(Muricy et al, , 2015Sandes et al, 2014;Bispo et al, 2016). However, the record of an undescribed species of Haliclona from Rocas Atoll (Moraes et al, 2003(Moraes et al, , 2006Moraes, 2011) and the number of new species of Haliclona recently described from Brazil (five spp.)…”

Diving into the unknown: fourteen new species of haplosclerid sponges (Demospongiae: Haplosclerida) revealed along the Peruvian coast (Southeastern Pacific)

“…Megascleres usually slender oxeas with acerated points. No microscleres (Muricy et al 2015). Diagnosis.…”

“…However, the reticulation in H. (Haliclona) is supposed to be very regular, with straight primary lines, while in the new species it is more irregular with spongin not observable. Thus, H. (Rhizoniera) remains as the best assignment for the new species, especially after the amendment of the subgeneric diagnosis by Muricy et al (2015) to allow the inclusion of species with unispicular primary lines. This is the only blue Haliclona found in Peru.…”

“…This subgenus is the most similar to what is observed in the new species, except for the presence of a more isotropic skeleton in the inner parts of the choanosome and the presence of uni-to bispicular primary lines. Nevertheless, Muricy et al (2015) amended the definition of H. (Rhizoniera) to include species with unispicular primary lines. Concurrently, the species H.…”