sea peach sponge Suberites caminatus

Suberites caminatus is found throughout Antarctica and South Georgia Island, Marion Island, between Heard and Kerguelen Islands, and in Argentina at depths from 33 to 1,080 meters [1,2,3,5]. The body of S. caminatus is dense, cushion-shaped or hemispherical, and up to 4.5 centimeters high [2,4]. The surface of S. caminatus is smooth and can be slightly rough [2]. On the upper part of S. caminatus, there are thin-walled tubular papillae with osculae up to 0.5 centimeters long and there may be small tubercles [2,4]. The color of S. caminatus is grayish yellow, beige, grayish brown, or gray [2,4].

S. caminatus may host diatoms within its food-capturing cells that line the passages through which the sponge circulates water; these endobiont diatoms live by consuming carbohydrates produced by the sponge and also by photosynthesis [6]. This symbiotic adaptation by the diatoms enhances their survival in the low light levels found down deep under the ice (as well as the dark months of winter) [6].

1: Hooper, JNA & Wiedenmayer, F. Porifera. IN: Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 12. Wells, A, ed. Melbourne : CSIRO Australia, 1994; 2: 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; 3: Norbert Wu, personal communication, 1999 (33 meters, Ross Island); 4: 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; 5: Polar Biology 12:559-585, 1992; 6: Biological Bulletin 198:29-33, 2000

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