staghorn sponge Haliclona tenella

Haliclona tenella is found throughout Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, and Falkland Islands from 50 to 226 meters depth [1,2,4]. H. tenella has an irregularly massive, cushion-shaped, or staghorn-like body which crumbles easily [2,3,5]. H. tenella has conspicuous oscules and a minutely reticulate uneven surface [2,3]. The color of H. tenella is white or light yellow [2,6].


Haliclona tenella is less commonly seen, being 0.6% of the benthic surface cover at a Cape Armitage site [6]. H. tenella is typically seen in the third benthic zone of Cape Armitage below 33 meters depth and is rarely seen in the second zone between 15 and 33 meters depth [6].

Specimens of Haliclona tenella followed for up to ten years added up to fiftteen centimeters of growth; fifteen centimeter growth was seen after six years and after nine years for certain specimens [5].

H. tenella is eaten by the seastars Odontaster meridionalis and Acodontaster hodgsoni and by the dorid nudibranch Doris kerguelenensis [6].

Taxonomic Note: In 2002, Haliclona was divided into six subgenera, but species were not assigned to the subgenera [7]. Various genera including Reniera have been synonymized into Haliclona over time [2,3,4,7]. H. tenella closely resembles H. rudis [2].

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: Further Zoological Results of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901-1903. Volume 3, Number 2. Sponges. M Burton. Stockholm : PA Norstedt and Soner, 1934; 4: Polar Biology 12:559-585, 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: Systema Porifera. JNA Hooper and RWM Van Soest. New York: Kluwer, 2002

Text ©Peter Brueggeman. Photographs © Jim Mastro and Canadian Museum of Nature (Kathleen Conlan). Photographs may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Jim Mastro and Canadian Museum of Nature (Kathleen Conlan).