Marshall Islands Sponges (Porifera)

This page links to photos of marine sponges (Phylum Porifera) we have seen around Kwajalein and other atolls in the Marshall Islands. Sponges are abundant, growing on the bottom but also on man-made structures such pier pilings, buoys, mooring lines and boat hulls. They are filter feeders, usually drawing water in through many small holes called ostia, filtering that water for planktonic food, collecting that water in central cavities and pumping it back out through larger holes called oscula. Species can be thick and massive or thin, encrusting the surfaces they are on. Many, perhaps most are sensitive to sunlight and grow in area with subdued light or that are dark, such as in shaded ledges and caves or under rocks. The photos below show only a sampling of the marine sponges in the Marshalls. We did not attempt to photograph most of the sponges. In many cases, the photos we did get were taken in the old film days, when cameras were largely restricted to 36 exposures per roll of film. Usually we would save two or three frames at the end of the roll until the very end of the dive, since you could be sure that once you used up all your film, you'd see something you absolutely HAD to get a photo of. So quite often, with air running out, we'd have to quickly take those last few shots of just about anything to keep from wasting film. So that was how we got many of our sponge, tunicate or coral photos. With the exception of a few well known species, sponges are quite difficult to identify, with variable shapes and colors that often make one species look like several. Our names came from several references, some books and some websites, but because of the variability, our specimens usually do not exactly match those from the references. Most of these IDs must be considered tentative, but we thought it worthwhile to at least make the images available.

The thumbnails below link to pages with additional, larger photographs.

Demospongiae

Agelas sp. 1	Amphimedon queenslandica	Aplysilla sulfurea
Aplysilla sulfurea	Aplysinella rhax	Aplysinella rhax
Aplysilla? sp. 1	Astrosclera willeyana	Atergia sp. 1
Axinella proliferans	Batzella rubra	Batzella cf rubra
Batzella sp. 1	Callyspongia aerizusa	Callyspongia flammea
Callyspongia cf joubini [1]	Callyspongia cf joubini [2]	Callyspongia cf joubini [3]
Callyspongia sp. 2	Callyspongia sp. 5	Callyspongia sp. 6
Ceratopsion sp. 1	Chalinula nematifera	Chalinula velinea
Chelonaplysilla violacea	Chelonaplysilla aurea	Chelonaplysilla sp. 2
Chelonaplysilla sp. 3	Chondrilla sp. 1	Chondrosia corticata
Clathria menoui	Clathria sp. 1	Clathria sp. 2
Coscinoderma mathewsi	Coscinoderma mathewsi	Craniella abracadabra
Crella cyathophora	Crella papillata	Crella papillata
Dactylospongia elegans	Dactylospongia elegans	Dercitus simplex
Diplastrella gardineri	Dysidea cf arenaria	Dysidea fragilis
Dysidea cf granulosa	Dysidea sp. 1	Dysidea sp. 2
Dysidea sp. 3	Dysidea sp. 4	Dysidea sp. 6
Dysidea sp. 8	Dysidea sp. 9	Echinochalina intermedia
Echinochalina sp. 1	Echinochalina sp. 2	Ecionemia acervus
Euryspongia delicatula	Gelliodes sp. 1	Haliclona cf fascigera
Haliclona cf fascigera	Haliclona cf fascigera	Haliclona cf fascigera
Haliclona cf fascigera	Haliclona cf osiris	Haliclona peixinhoae
Homosclerophorida sp. 1	Homosclerophorida sp. 2	Hymedesmiidae? sp. 1
Hymedesmia sp. 1	Hyrtios erectus	Ianthella basta
Ircinia ramosa	Ircinia sp. 1	Liosina cf paradoxa
Melophlus sarasinorum	Monanchora clathrata	Mycale cecilia
Mycale sp. 1	Mycale sp. 2	Neoernsta citrea
Neopetrosia cf carbonaria	Niphates olemda	Oceanapia sagittaria
Oceanapia? sp. 1	Paratetilla cf bacca	Plakina sp. 1
Plakinidae sp. 1	Prosuberites conulosus	Pseudoceratina purpurea
Reniochalina sp. 1	Scopalina hapalia	Scopalina cf hapalia [1]
Scopalina cf hapalia [2]	Semitaspongia sp. 1	Siphonodictyon coralliophagum
Spheciospongia vagabunda	Spheciospongia cf vagabunda [1]	Spheciospongia cf vagabunda [2]
Spongia oceania	Spongia sp. 1	Terpios aploos
Tethya sp. 1	Tethya sp. 2	Tethya sp. 3
Vaceletia crypta	Xestospongia sp. 1	Xestospongia sp. 2
Zyzzya sp. 1	Sponge black sp. 3	Sponge black sp. 4
Sponge black wire	Sponge brown sp. 1	Sponge brown sp. 2
Sponge brown sp. 3	Sponge brown sp. 4	Sponge brown sp. 5
Sponge, cream sp. 2	Sponge purple network	Sponge yellow network
Sponge, thin brown	Sponge encrusting coral	Sponge pink encrusting coral
Sponge cream encrusting sp. 1	Sponge cream encrusting sp. 2	Sponge encrusting orange
Sponge encrusting pink	Sponge encrusting pink	Sponge encrusting purple
Sponge encrusting red sp. 1	Sponge encrusting red sp. 2	Sponge encrusting red sp. 3
Sponge encrusting white sp. 2	Sponge encrusting yellow	Sponge encrusting turquiose
Sponge fringed	Sponge gray	Sponge gray sp. 2
Sponge orange sp. 1	Sponge orange sp. 3	Sponge orange sp. 5
Sponge orange sp. 7	Sponge orange sp. 8	Sponge pink
Sponge red-brown	Sponge red sp. 4	Sponge red sp. 5
Sponge red sp. 6	Sponge tan	Sponge vase brown
Sponge whip	Sponge gray whip	Sponge white sp. 1
Sponge white sp. 2	Sponge white sp. 4	Sponge white sp. 5
Sponge white sp. 6	Sponge yellow sp. 2	Sponge yellow sp. 3
Sponge yellow sp. 4	Sponge yellow sp. 6

Calcarea

Anamixilla torresi	Clathrina sp. 1	Clathrina sp. 2
Leucetta chagosensis	Leucetta microraphis	Leucetta microraphis
Leucetta pyriformis	Leucetta cf solida	Nicola tetela
Sycettusa sp. 1	Sponge calcareous sp. 1	Sponge calcareous sp. 5

Major references used:

Colin & Arneson (1995)
Gosliner et al (1996)
Hoover (1999)
iNaturalist
Marine Biodiversity Survey of Guam and the Marianas - Porifera

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