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

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).