Terpios hoshinota, a new cyanobacteriosponge threatening Pacific reefs
Klaus Rützler, Katherine Muzik

The new species Terpios hoshinota (Suberitidae. Hadromerida) is described from coral reefs in the western Central Pacific. It is recognized by its extensive grayish to blackish encrustations on coral, distinctive lobed tylostyle spicules, and association with abundant, large, unicellular cyanobacteria of the Aphanocaps raspaigella type. The sponge aggressively competes for space by killing and overgrowing live coral and is responsible for the demise of large reef areas. particularly in pollution-stressed zones near shore. The intercellular zoocyanellae make up half or more of the sponge tissue. Their morphology, as determined by electron microscope observations, is identical to that of symbionts described from two species of an unrelated sponge genus from the Caribbean, Dictyonella.

Keywords: Coral Reef. Porifera, competitton, symbiosis, cyanobacteria. Pacific.
Contents of this volume Sci. Mar. 57(4) : 395-403 Back PDF
 
 
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