A guide to the deep-water sponges of - NMFS Scientific Publications ...
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A guide to the deep-water sponges of - NMFS Scientific Publications ...

A guide to the deep-water sponges of - NMFS Scientific Publications ... A guide to the deep-water sponges of - NMFS Scientific Publications ...

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22 Professional Paper NMFS 12 9. Aphrocallistes vastus Schulze, 1886 (continued)

10. Heterochone calyx calyx Schulze, 1886 Description. This sponge is polymorphic and similar to Aphrocallistes vastus, with which it is often confused. Sponge is cup or funnel shaped, and is up to at least 30 cm in height and 40 cm in diameter. It forms bowls or plates in areas of low current. Lateral walls are often with hollow finger-shaped processes. Color is bright gold or pale yellow in the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea. It displays two typical color morphs in the Gulf of Alaska – white and golden yellow. Skeletal structure. It has a rigid skeleton of fused hexactinal spicules with a poorly delineated honeycomb pattern of 1 mm wide channels passing vertically through the walls. Several types of loose megascleres include pinular hexactins on inner and outer surfaces, with thorned pinulus (48–150 µm long), tangential rays spined at the tips (100–302 µm long), and proximal ray (69–1265 µm long); scopules on both surfaces (242–630 µm long); spined hexactins (80–204 µm/ray); uncinates (500–1540 × 14–54 µm); rough centrotylote diactins (308–786 µm/ray) are apparently absent in some specimens. Microscleres are discohexactins and discohexasters (44–100 µm in diameter) with 1–4 secondaries and terminal discs; oxyhexactins and oxyhexasters (53–100 µm in diameter). Zoogeographic distribution. North Pacific Ocean; locally common and abundant in some areas. In Alaska – Bering Sea to Southeast Alaska. Elsewhere – Japan, Kuril Islands, Sea of Okhotsk, British Columbia to Panama. Habitat. Aleutian Islands – attached to bedrock, cobbles, and pebbles, usually in low-relief habitats, at depths between 112 to 740 m. Bering Sea – attached to pebbles and hexactinellid skeletons at depths between 375 and 522 m. Gulf of Alaska – on the continental shelf 23 and upper slope at depths between 70 and at least 259 m. Observed in the glacial fjords of Southeast Alaska growing on bedrock at depths as shallow as 21 m. Elsewhere – reported at depths between 23 and 1103 m. Remarks. This is one of the most ecologically important sponges in Alaska. Juvenile golden king crabs (Lithodes aequispina) use the spongocoel as refuge habitat in the Aleutian Islands (Stone, 2006). Due to its rigid skeleton, this species is an important structural component of the sponge reefs reported along the Pacific coast of Canada (Conway et al., 1991, 2005; Krautter et al., 2001) and recently in southern Southeast Alaska. We have not been able to confirm the presence of the other subspecies (H. calyx schulzei) in Alaskan waters. This species may be preyed upon by the sea star Henricia longispina in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. Heterochone calyx calyx can be distinguished from the very similar Aphrocallistes vastus by the presence of pinular hexactins on the inner (atrial) surface and by the lack of robust oxyhexasters with primary rays subsumed in a swollen centrum. Photos. 1) Specimen collected at a depth of 172 m in the central Aleutian Islands. A small stalked demosponge grows from inside the specimen. Grid marks are 1 cm 2 . 2) Specimen collected at a depth of 520 m in Zhemchug Canyon, Bering Sea. Grid marks are 1 cm 2 . 3) Specimen at a depth of 180 m with a juvenile rosethorn rockfish (Sebastes helvomaculatus) and juvenile brown box crab (Lopholithodes foraminatus) in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. 4) Specimen at a depth of 181 m in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. 5) Specimen at a depth of 190 m with a sharpchin rockfish (Sebastes zacentrus) and squat lobsters (Munida quadrispina) in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. Photo by J. Lincoln Freese (AFSC).

22 Pr<strong>of</strong>essional Paper <strong>NMFS</strong> 12<br />

9. Aphrocallistes vastus Schulze, 1886 (continued)

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