WoRMS taxon details
Polymastia nigra Alcolado, 1984
170651 (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:170651)
accepted
Species
marine, brackish, fresh, terrestrial
recent only
Alcolado, P.M. (1984). Nuevas especies de esponjas encontradas en Cuba [New species of sponges from Cuba]. <i>Poeyana 271</i>: 1-22 (look up in IMIS)
page(s): 12 [details]
page(s): 12 [details]
Holotype IdO-407, geounit Greater Antilles
Holotype IdO-407, geounit Greater Antilles [details]
Description The author of this species, Pedro Alcolado, kindly provided an English translation of the original description in the...
Taxonomy This is an unlikely Polymastia as it lacks the characteristic papillae and also the ectosomal palisade of small tylostyles...
Description The author of this species, Pedro Alcolado, kindly provided an English translation of the original description in the Spanish language, which clarifies some of the uncertainties:
Description. This sponge appears filling crevices in reef bottoms, without protruding markedly. So, it appears as patches with tuberculate surface [PAPILLAE] and oscular chimneys [OSCULAR PAPILLAE] bearing oscules of about 1 cm in diameter. These oscules contract considerably like the rest of the sponge, when extracted from water. The tubercles [PAPILLAE] are hemispherical protubernances of 3-5 mm in diámeter and 2-4 mm in height, which can appear solitary or fused with neighbor ones. Surface color is dark grey, almost black, (thus, its name) and chonaosome is beige. Consistency is very tough and hard as rubber. The ectosome if formed by a dense palisade of tylostiles, comparatively small, with points directed outward. Choanosome is formed by ascending tracts with both big and smal tylostyles. These tracts alternate with hyaline fibers which look alike fungus hyfae, of unknown nature, and to which the sponge possibly owes its toughness. Spicules are [BIG] fusiform subtylostyles of 550-750 x 15-19 ¼m, short robust subtylostyles of 240-455 x 1-8 ¼m, and small thin subtylostyles of 150-480 x 1-8 ¼m. Spherical hyaline bodies (spherules) of 5-11 in diameter were also observed.
Locality. Collected ath the fore-reef of Barlovento (Havana City) at 15 m deep.
Collector. The author
Remarks. In consulted literature species with the above features are not mentioned. Apparently, this genus was not mentioned for the West Indies.
[I have seen this species several times further with paler grey or pruplish grey color in less lit places]
Source of original description:
Alcolado, P. M. (1984). Nuevas especies de esponjas encontradas en Cuba. Poeyana 271: 1-22. [details]
Description. This sponge appears filling crevices in reef bottoms, without protruding markedly. So, it appears as patches with tuberculate surface [PAPILLAE] and oscular chimneys [OSCULAR PAPILLAE] bearing oscules of about 1 cm in diameter. These oscules contract considerably like the rest of the sponge, when extracted from water. The tubercles [PAPILLAE] are hemispherical protubernances of 3-5 mm in diámeter and 2-4 mm in height, which can appear solitary or fused with neighbor ones. Surface color is dark grey, almost black, (thus, its name) and chonaosome is beige. Consistency is very tough and hard as rubber. The ectosome if formed by a dense palisade of tylostiles, comparatively small, with points directed outward. Choanosome is formed by ascending tracts with both big and smal tylostyles. These tracts alternate with hyaline fibers which look alike fungus hyfae, of unknown nature, and to which the sponge possibly owes its toughness. Spicules are [BIG] fusiform subtylostyles of 550-750 x 15-19 ¼m, short robust subtylostyles of 240-455 x 1-8 ¼m, and small thin subtylostyles of 150-480 x 1-8 ¼m. Spherical hyaline bodies (spherules) of 5-11 in diameter were also observed.
Locality. Collected ath the fore-reef of Barlovento (Havana City) at 15 m deep.
Collector. The author
Remarks. In consulted literature species with the above features are not mentioned. Apparently, this genus was not mentioned for the West Indies.
[I have seen this species several times further with paler grey or pruplish grey color in less lit places]
Source of original description:
Alcolado, P. M. (1984). Nuevas especies de esponjas encontradas en Cuba. Poeyana 271: 1-22. [details]
Taxonomy This is an unlikely Polymastia as it lacks the characteristic papillae and also the ectosomal palisade of small tylostyles...
Taxonomy This is an unlikely Polymastia as it lacks the characteristic papillae and also the ectosomal palisade of small tylostyles does not seem to be developed (despite the author's description); the choanosome is peculiarly fibrous/stringy. Boury-Esnault (1987) listed this in a table of Atlantic Polymastia species as 'insufficiently described'. A recent (October 2005) debate about it yielded suggestions it could be Spheciospongia vesparia or Polymastia tenax, but this remains contentious. [details]
de Voogd, N.J.; Alvarez, B.; Boury-Esnault, N.; Cárdenas, P.; Díaz, M.-C.; Dohrmann, M.; Downey, R.; Goodwin, C.; Hajdu, E.; Hooper, J.N.A.; Kelly, M.; Klautau, M.; Lim, S.C.; Manconi, R.; Morrow, C.; Pinheiro, U.; Pisera, A.B.; Ríos, P.; Rützler, K.; Schönberg, C.; Turner, T.; Vacelet, J.; van Soest, R.W.M.; Xavier, J. (2024). World Porifera Database. Polymastia nigra Alcolado, 1984. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=170651 on 2024-04-19
The webpage text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
original description
Alcolado, P.M. (1984). Nuevas especies de esponjas encontradas en Cuba [New species of sponges from Cuba]. <i>Poeyana 271</i>: 1-22 (look up in IMIS)
page(s): 12 [details]
additional source Boury-Esnault, N. (1987). The <i>Polymastia</i> species (Demospnges, Hadromerida) of the Atlantic area. <i>In: </i>Vacelet J, Boury-Esnault N (eds) Taxonomy of Porifera from the N.E. Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. <em>NATO Advanced Science Institutes Series G, Ecological Sciences. Springer, Heidelberg,.</em> 13: 29-66. (look up in IMIS)
page(s): 59 [details] Available for editors
[request]
page(s): 12 [details]
additional source Boury-Esnault, N. (1987). The <i>Polymastia</i> species (Demospnges, Hadromerida) of the Atlantic area. <i>In: </i>Vacelet J, Boury-Esnault N (eds) Taxonomy of Porifera from the N.E. Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. <em>NATO Advanced Science Institutes Series G, Ecological Sciences. Springer, Heidelberg,.</em> 13: 29-66. (look up in IMIS)
page(s): 59 [details] Available for editors
[request] 
Present Present in aphia/obis/gbif/idigbio Inaccurate Introduced: alien Containing type locality
Holotype IdO-407, geounit Greater Antilles [details]
From editor or global species database
Description The author of this species, Pedro Alcolado, kindly provided an English translation of the original description in the Spanish language, which clarifies some of the uncertainties:Description. This sponge appears filling crevices in reef bottoms, without protruding markedly. So, it appears as patches with tuberculate surface [PAPILLAE] and oscular chimneys [OSCULAR PAPILLAE] bearing oscules of about 1 cm in diameter. These oscules contract considerably like the rest of the sponge, when extracted from water. The tubercles [PAPILLAE] are hemispherical protubernances of 3-5 mm in diámeter and 2-4 mm in height, which can appear solitary or fused with neighbor ones. Surface color is dark grey, almost black, (thus, its name) and chonaosome is beige. Consistency is very tough and hard as rubber. The ectosome if formed by a dense palisade of tylostiles, comparatively small, with points directed outward. Choanosome is formed by ascending tracts with both big and smal tylostyles. These tracts alternate with hyaline fibers which look alike fungus hyfae, of unknown nature, and to which the sponge possibly owes its toughness. Spicules are [BIG] fusiform subtylostyles of 550-750 x 15-19 ¼m, short robust subtylostyles of 240-455 x 1-8 ¼m, and small thin subtylostyles of 150-480 x 1-8 ¼m. Spherical hyaline bodies (spherules) of 5-11 in diameter were also observed.
Locality. Collected ath the fore-reef of Barlovento (Havana City) at 15 m deep.
Collector. The author
Remarks. In consulted literature species with the above features are not mentioned. Apparently, this genus was not mentioned for the West Indies.
[I have seen this species several times further with paler grey or pruplish grey color in less lit places]
Source of original description:
Alcolado, P. M. (1984). Nuevas especies de esponjas encontradas en Cuba. Poeyana 271: 1-22. [details]
Taxonomy This is an unlikely Polymastia as it lacks the characteristic papillae and also the ectosomal palisade of small tylostyles does not seem to be developed (despite the author's description); the choanosome is peculiarly fibrous/stringy. Boury-Esnault (1987) listed this in a table of Atlantic Polymastia species as 'insufficiently described'. A recent (October 2005) debate about it yielded suggestions it could be Spheciospongia vesparia or Polymastia tenax, but this remains contentious. [details]
