| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona ?peponaca |
1 |
Excavating sponge. Orange oscular and inhalant papillae; tylostyle spicules with a well-formed head, no microscleries. Identity pending further revision. May be confused with papillated Cliona delitrix Pang, 1973. |
Pang, 1973 |
orange,papillated,soft |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona aprica |
9 |
Excavating sponge. Fields of black papillae, often partly fused, level with the substratum, slightly elevated when relaxed. This sponge excavates the upper 1-2 cm of the substratum, filling cavities with a greenish yellow tissue. For distinction from other similar species see Zea & Weil (2003). |
Pang, 1973 |
black,encrusting,papillated,hard,tough |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona caribbaea |
63 |
Also known as Cliona langae Pang, 1973. Dark green to brown incrustations, spread over the excavated substratum, reaching sizes up to about 1-2 m; young specimens are made of partly fused papillae. Oscules conspicuous, usually of lighter color. Can be confused with Cliona tenuis (not yet found in the Bahamas), which is thinner (the substratum is visible through the tissue) and has tiny oscules (apart from spiculation, see Zea and Weil, 2003). This sponge excavates the upper 1-2 cm of the substratum, filling cavities with a greenish yellow tissue. |
Carter, 1882 |
green,black,brown,gray,cream,encrusting,papillated,hard,tough |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona delitrix |
26 |
Excavating sponge. It excavates and encrusts massive corals. Externally it appears as a bright red encrustation with many scattered elevated papillae and one or several large and deep oscules with a high dermal collar. Often riddled with zoanthids. Excavations are deep, filled with orange tissue. We have included here the papillated forms which in some areas are dominant, perhaps because coralline or turf algae (or predators?) do not allow them to grow larger and fuse papillae. From the above, it is our belief that Cliona laticavicola Pang, 1973 (papillated sponges described originally from the same locality of C. delitrix) are either young individuals or ecophenotypes of C. delitrix. |
Pang, 1973 |
red,yellow,green,orange,encrusting,papillated,tough,soft,crumbly,hard |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona schmidti |
1 |
Excavating sponge. Sparse, rather cryptic papillae; it was revealed to us when collecting another excavating sponge (Cliona aprica Pang, 1973, righ side of photo) as a deep blue excavating tissue (center of photo). C. schmidti was originally described from the Mediterranean Sea. It remains to be determined if W. Atlantic populations are conspecific or different. |
(Ridley, 1881), sensu Pang (1973) |
blue,papillated,soft |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona sp. amber papillae |
4 |
Excavating sponge. Amber brown-tan papillae. One specimen has tylostyles and thick spirasters; the other specimen only has tylostyles. It may be a young form of Cliona varians (Duch. & Mich., 1864), but it needs to be compared with C. flavifodina Rützler, 1974 and C. paucispina Rützler, 1974. |
|
yellow,cinnamon-tan,papillated,tough |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona sp.-orange crust |
2 |
Excavating sponge. Orange incrustation with large oscules, no papillae. Should not be confused with co-occurring C. delitrix Pang, 1973, which show elevated papillae even in fully encrusting individuals. Spicules are close to C. dioryssa (de Laubenfels, 1950, as Spirastrella; tylostyles and rather stout spirasters and deriatives), which is described from Bermuda (see also Rützler, 1974) as ragged coalescing encrustations not larger than a few cm, with minute and contractile oscules. Also needs to be compared with co-occurring C. varians (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864). |
|
orange,encrusting,tough,hard |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona tenuis |
5 |
Excavating sponge. It encrust entirely the excavated substratum with a thin veneer of brown tissue; the underlying coral skeleton can be discerned. Oscules are small and inconspicuous. Can grow up to several m in diameter, especially in fore reef pavement settings. It prefers windward, wave-exposed shallow reefs. We did not observe it in the Bahamas, because we did not visit open windward reef sites. The accompanied photos are from Colombia. It has been colonizing the dead stands of the elkhorn coral Acropora palmata throughout the Caribbean. It can be distinguished from C. caribbaea Carter, 1882 by the latter being thicker and with larger oscules; there are also slight spicular differences (size and shape, see Zea & Weil, 2003). This sponge excavates the upper 1-2 cm of the substratum, filling cavities with a greenish yellow tissue. |
Zea & Weil, 2003 |
brown,encrusting,soft |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona varians |
18 |
Previously placed under genus Anthosigmella. Excavating sponge. Dull orange to tan or brownish, thick encrustations that may cover several square meters of substratum. Oscules are relatively large, paler and slighlty elevated. |
(Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864) |
yellow,brown,orange,green,cream,cinnamon-tan,encrusting,fan,massive,tough,crumbly |
| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Clionaidae |
Cliona vermifera |
4 |
Excavating sponge in which its small red-orange papillae are the only feature visible on the substratum. Upon breaking the coral where it dwells, the excavating chambers are revealed, which are filled by orange tissue. It can be confused with other tiny papillated sponges such as the excavating Pione lampa fo. occulta Rützler, 1974, and the non-excavating but crevice filling (when in reefs) Tedania ignis (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864). Papillae of Cliona delitrix Pang, 1973 are larger. |
Hancock, 1867 |
orange,red,papillated,soft |
