| Demospongiae |
Homosclerophorida |
Plakinidae |
Oscarella sp.-cream veil |
3 |
Extremely soft sheets, cream in color, semitransparent, inhabiting deep reef cave walls and overhangs. The sponge is only partly attached to the substratum, so that the edges are free. It is extremely difficult to collect as it virtually disintegrates upon handling. No spicules. It has also been pictured in Colin (1978) Caribbean reef invertebrate guide as Halisarca sp. |
|
cream,encrusting,fan,soft |
| Demospongiae |
Homosclerophorida |
Plakinidae |
Plakina jamaicensis |
6 |
Slightly tough to softer, creamy-orangy encrustations growing on deep reef overhangs, with characteristic brain-like convolutions and scattered oscules on skin lobes. Spicules are diods and triods with a few spines, calthrops and small branched lophocalthrops (lophotriaenes). Softer specimens have less spicules than tougher ones, often just a few. Should be compared to Plakina versatilis (Schmidt, 1880) (originally described under Corcitium, see Rützler et l., 2009). |
Lehnert & van Soest, 1998 |
cream,orange,cinnamon-tan,encrusting,massive,tough,soft |
| Demospongiae |
Homosclerophorida |
Plakinidae |
Plakinastrella onkodes |
2 |
Cream-gray to yellow lobes with a top oscule, to high, thick-walled tubes. It may also be cushion-shaped with scattered, slightly elevated oscules. Consistency tough. There is geographic variation in megasclere spicule calthrops size, being larger and stouter in the Southern Caribbean. |
(Uliczka, 1929) |
cream,gray,yellow,tube,lobate,tough |
| Demospongiae |
Homosclerophorida |
Plakinidae |
Plakortis angulospiculatus |
16 |
Dark brown to dark and light green to gray, soft cushions. Compared to the other dark (brown to black) species of the genus in the Caribbean [Plakortis halichondroides (Wilson, 1902)], it is thinner, it has smaller oscules and smaller spicules (up to about 120 µm). Specimens without spicules (regardless of color) are included as a separate species (Plakortis sp.-no spicules) pending further work with other tools. Some of our specimens of P. angulospiculatus had relatively few spicules. It may be that they all belong to one or several species (perhaps distinguished by predominant color) in which spicule contents vary ecologycally, from many to none. Perhaps the variability of the color, pungent smell and consistency implies a complex of several species which may include Plakortis zygompha (de Laubenfels, 1934), P. insularis Moraes & Muricy, 2003 and P. microrhabdifera Moraes & Muricy, 2003. We have not yet made a detailed analysis of spicule morphology and size and skeletal arrangement. |
(Carter, 1882) |
green,brown,black,encrusting,massive,soft |
| Demospongiae |
Homosclerophorida |
Plakinidae |
Plakortis halichondrioides-dark morphotype |
15 |
Dark brown to black (sometimes dark green), thick and large, soft cushions with a few, slightly elevated, large oscules. Consistency is soft but grainy. Underwater strobe brings lighter brown color to some photos. A dark ink is exuded when handled and fixed, which strongly stains the fixative. Compared to other Caribbean species of the genus it is less soft, and has larger spicules, of a rather uniform size (usually >150 µm). In some areas there are light brown (cinnamon-tan) specimens with the same spicule shape and size that apparently do not produce the dark exudate, but more work is needed to find if they belong to a different species. Herein we have placed them as separate morphotypes of P. halichondroides. We have placed any dark Plakortis with larger spicules exceeding 150 µm in lenght within P. halichondroides, in contradiction to Diaz & van Soest (1984) and Moraes & Muricy (2003) who report some P. angulospiculatus with greater spicule sizes. |
(Wilson, 1902) |
green,black,brown,orange,cinnamon-tan,massive,encrusting,tough,soft,crumbly |
| Demospongiae |
Homosclerophorida |
Plakinidae |
Plakortis halichondroides-light brown morphotype |
9 |
Light reddish (tan), thick and large, soft cushions with a few, slightly elevated, large oscules. Interior color is slightly lighter. Consistency is soft but grainy. In contrast to the dark brown morphotype of this species, it does not exude a dark ink when handled and fixed. It has the same larger spicules (usually >150 µm) of the dark morphotype, but we have not carried out detailed comparisons to see if they differ in size or arrangement. It remains to be seen whether the dark and light morphotypes are different species. |
(Wilson, 1902) |
orange,cinnamon-tan,encrusting,massive,tough,soft |
| Demospongiae |
Homosclerophorida |
Plakinidae |
Plakortis sp.-no spicules |
9 |
Very soft, gray black, light brown or parrot green encrustations with scattered oscules; internal color lighter. Often the tissue dissintegrates upon handling. No spicules. It has the look of a typical sponge of the genus Plakortis [(especially Plakortis angulospiculatus (Carter, 1882)] except by the lack of spicules. Genus Pseudocorticium was recently erected to hold those species of the family Plakinidae without spicules (Boury-Esnault et al., 1995), but its external appearance is completely different to that of Plakortis. Further work with tools other than external morphology and size of spicules is needed. We are puzzled by the variation in color and by the fact that there are specimens of P. angulospiculatus with a few spicules, perhaps indicating that spicule contents vary ecologically. |
|
brown,gray,green,black,cinnamon-tan,encrusting,massive,soft |
