Iophon piceum Arctic 1882

• Main Authors: Dinn, Curtis, Edinger, Evan, Leys, Sally P.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Porifera; Demospongiae; Poecilosclerida; Acarnidae; Iophon; Iophon piceum; Arctic; Canada; Frobisher Bay
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/5189296; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5189296

Iophon piceum (Vosmaer, 1882) Figure 4, Table 4 Synonymy: Alebion piceum Vosmaer, 1882: 42 –44 pl. I, fig 19, pl. III, fig. 75–78, 81–82. Esperia pattersoni; sensu Fristedt, 1887: 448 –449. Iophon piceum: Lundbeck 1905: 175 –180, pl. VI, fig. 1–2, pl. XVII, fig. 3a–b. Brunel et al. 1998: 62–63, Dinn & Leys 2018: 32. Material examined. CMNI 2018-0177, specimen in 95% ethanol, collected by Curtis Dinn by BX 650 MK III box core; July 14, 2017, 507m depth (62° 49.126’ N, 66°56.354’ W) operated from the CCGS Amundsen, Frobisher Bay, Canada. Description. Large fragments of a cup shaped specimen were collected (Fig. 4A). The whole specimen is thought to have been 10–20 cm in diameter, but the growth form was not obvious as the sponge was collected in pieces. The spongin fibres and spicules form a lattice. The sponge is rough to the touch, fragile and dark black in colour. The black pigment leeches out of preserved specimens and will transfer the colour to ethanol. The spicules (Fig. 4 B–F) consist of acanthostyles 320 (275–349) x 16 (12–19) µm; tylotes with spined heads 260 (237–278) x 12 (9–16) µm; spurred anisochelae 18.5 (13–32) µm; and bipocilli with unequal alae, both with fine teeth 11.8 (8.7–16.5) µm. Taxonomic Remarks. The spicule measurements agree with those in the original description by Vosmaer (1882) and in subsequent descriptions by Lundbeck (1905) and Arndt (1935) (Table 4). Two slight variations in spicule size were noted in this specimen: tylote thickness reaches a maximum of 16 µm whereas the thickest tylotes described by Lundbeck (1905) are 11 µm. The acanthostyles in this specimen do not exceed 350 µm, whereas Lundbeck states that acanthostyles can reach 450 µm. Vosmaer (1882) described this species as being of a “pitchy colour” and having a cup-shape. Lundbeck (1905) describes the sponge as leaf shaped and erect with an attachment to the seafloor at the base. The overall spicule complement in the present specimen is very similar to Lundbeck’s (1905) description. The bipocilli in the present ...