Aplysina chiriquiensis Diaz, Van Soest, Rutzler & Guzman 2005

Aplysina chiriquiensis Díaz, Van Soest, Rützler & Guzmán, 2005 Figure 11, Table 11 Examined material. MUHNES-91-4— El Bajón de Zúniga I (13°30’16.15”N, 89°47’7.4”W), depth 8 m, A. Trejo (18.VII.2018); MUHNES-91-13— La Puntita (13°30’20.7”N, 89°48’40.2”W), depth 8 m, A. Trejo (19.VII.2018). Description. Branched sponge, with finger-like branches coming from a common base. Specimens are 10 to 20 cm tall, their branches 3 to 15 cm tall and 1 to 4 cm thick. Branches are soft to touch, they can be cylindrical and sometimes compressed (Figure 11A–B). The external color of the sponge is intense yellow and when exposed to air they turn blue, when preserved they turn dark brown or black. The skeleton has a compressible and elastic consistency, and generally presents oscula located in small protuberances. The skeleton consists of a reticulate meshwork of laminated amber fibers 70–170 µm in diameter, a granular pith occupying 10–38% of the fiber diameter (Figure 11C–D). Ecological notes. The species was found attached to large rocks and among octocorals of the genus Carijoa Müller, 1867, at 8 m depth. Distribution and previous records. The species was described by Díaz et al. in 2005 from the Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama. It was previously reported by Desqueyroux-Faúndez & Van Soest in 1997 from Galápagos Islands under the synonym of Aplysina ecuatorensis. Later, Lizarazo et al. (2020) and Willenz & Hajdu (2022) reported the species from the Pacific of Colombia and Peru, respectively. Here we report it for the first time from Los Cóbanos, El Salvador (Table 12). Remarks. From the four species of the genus Aplysina reported in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, our specimen matches the description of A. chiriquiensis, since is the only species with pedunculate morphology and bright yellow coloration, although, the species can be found in color ranges from pinkish-red or purple too (Díaz & Van Soest 2005), the only coloration identified for our specimens was bright yellow. Our samples differ from the other species specially in morphology and coloration since A. clathrata Cruz-Barraza, Carballo, Rocha-Olivares, Ehrlich & Hog, 2012, is a semi-spherical to massive sponge with bright yellow or yellow to brown, red, violet or pink (Cruz-Barraza et al. 2012). The other two species A. gerardogreeni, Gómez & Bakus, 1992, and A. revillagigedi Cruz-Barraza, Carballo, Rocha-Olivares, Ehrlich & Hog, 2012, are cushion-shaped to massive sponges, the first one commonly yellow with tubes topped by an oscule and the second one usually green with oscula lineally on rims (Cruz-Barraza et al. 2012).