basketball sponge Tetilla leptoderma

Tetilla leptoderma is found throughout Antarctica and South Shetland Island, South Georgia Island, Falkland Islands, Kerguelen Island, Heard Island, Chile, and Argentina from 4 to 2,267 meters depth [1,3,7,8,10]. T. leptoderma has two morphological types: upright egg-shaped with one oscular opening at the top, or spherical with numerous oscular openings at the top [4]. T. leptoderma can be large, up to 35 centimeters [5].


The surface of Tetilla leptoderma is smooth or bristly with a spicule felt; it has small crests and conules [4,7]. T. leptoderma may have root-like spicules entangled at its base [7].

The color of T. leptoderma is greyish beige, reddish gray, dirty gray, light yellow, or light brown [4,7,8].


Tetilla leptoderma is found in the third benthic zone of Cape Armitage below 33 meters and rarely in the second benthic zone between 15 and 33 meters [6]. T. leptoderma is commonly seen, being 3.2% of the benthic surface cover and 6.7% of the sponge biomass at a Cape Armitage site [6].

Predators of T. leptoderma include the seastars Perknaster fuscus antarcticus, Odontaster validus, and Acodontaster conspicuus and the nudibranch Doris kerguelenensis [6].



Seventy Tetilla leptoderma showed no growth in ten years [5]. Only two of another 55 T. leptoderma showed growth over three years, increasing in diameter one or two centimeters [5].

The clumped dispersion of T. leptoderma suggests that it has limited larval dispersal [5].



An extract from Tetilla leptoderma has antibacterial and antiyeast activity [2].

Taxonomic Note: Cinachyra barbata is similar in morphology and skeleton to T. leptoderma with the presence of a cortex in C. barbata a chief distinguishing feature [9].

1: B.A.N.Z. Antarctic Research Expedition, 1929-1931, under the command of Sir Douglas Mawson, Kt., O.B.E., B.E., D.Sc., F.R.S., Reports -- Series B (Zoology and Botany). Volume 9, part 4. Porifera -- Part 1: Antarctic Sponges. VM Koltun. Adelaide : Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research, University of Adelaide, 1976; 2: Antarctic Science 4(2):179-183, 1992; 3: Hooper, JNA & Wiedenmayer, F. Porifera. IN: Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 12. Wells, A, ed. Melbourne : CSIRO Australia, 1994; 4: Antarctic Science 4(2):137-150, 1992; 5: Biologie des Spongiaires, Sponge Biology. C Levi and N Boury-Esnault, eds. Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Number 291. Paris : Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1979. pp.271-282; 6: Ecological Monographs 44(1):105-128, 1974; 7: Sponges of the Antarctic. I. Tetraxonida and Cornacuspongida. VM Koltun. IN: Biological reports of the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958 (Rezultaty biologicheskikh issledovanii Sovetskoi antarkticheskoi ekspeditsii, 1955-1958). Volume 2. EP Pavlovskii, ed. Jerusalem : Israel Program for Scientific Translations. 1966. pp.6-131; Appendix, Index of Latin Names on pp. 443-448; 8: Instituto Antartico Chileno. Serie Cientifica 39:97-158, 1989; 9: Ross Sea Expeditions 1987-1988 and 1989-1990, Straits of Magellan Expedition 1991, Data Report Part 3, Physical, Chemical and Biological Oceanography. F Faranda and L Guglielmo, eds. Genova : Repubblica Italiana, Ministry of the University and Scientific and Technological Research, National Scientific Commision for Antarctica, 1994. pp.67-100; 10: Polar Biology 12:559-585, 1992

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