New records and checklist of sponges from El Salvador (Eastern Tropical Pacific).

Abstract

Sponges constitute an important component of the benthic community in coral and rocky reefs. Although they play many ecological roles and interact with diverse marine invertebrate and vertebrate organisms, little is known of the diversity of marine sponges in El Salvador. The present study is the first effort in the study of the biodiversity of shallow rocky reef sponges from Los Cóbanos, the largest reef system and the only marine protected area of the country. The ten species herein described represent the first sponge fauna on non-intertidal reefs up to 16 m depth: Axinella nayaritensis, Endectyon (Endectyon) hyle, Mycale (Carmia) cecilia, Mycale (Zygomycale) ramulosa, Tedania (Tedania) tropicalis and Cliona euryphylle. Haliclona (Soestella) caerulea and Aplysina chiriquiensis are new records for the country, while Callyspongia (Callyspongia) californica and Subera etiennei are new records for the Central America Pacific coast. In addition, a review of the records and distribution of sponges in El Salvador was carried out.