cactus sponge Dendrilla antarctica

Dendrilla antarctica is found throughout Antarctica and Kerguelen Island, Falkland Islands, South America, Australia, Red Sea, and Malaysia from 5 to 549 meters depth [1,3,5,9,12]. The body of D. antarctica is irregularly branched or fan-shaped and can be up to sixty centimeters high [9,11]. D. antarctica has a smooth surface with conical papillae over one centimeter long [9]. D. antarctica is soft and elastic [11]. The color of D. antarctica is gray, yellowish, violet, pink, dark yellow, or brown [9,10].



Dendrilla antarctica (in middle foreground with Rossella racovitzae behind) is less commonly seen, being 0.8% of the benthic surface cover and 0.08% of the sponge biomass at a Cape Armitage site [7]. D. antarctica is slow-growing. Only two of twelve individuals grew within ten years and they increased their volume possibly 5% [6].

The dorid nudibranch Doris kerguelenesis eats Dendrilla antarctica [5]. An extract from Dendrilla antarctica has antibacterial, antifungal, and antiyeast activity [2].

D. antarctica 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 [13]. 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) [13].

Taxonomic Note: Koltun (1976) has it recorded as Dendrilla membranosa [1]. It was revised to Dictyodendrilla membranosa [4] and then revised to Dendrilla antarctica [3,10]. Van Soest corroborated as Dendrilla antarctica [8]. Some later authors refer to it as Dendrilla membranosa [13,14].

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: New Zealand Journal of Zoology 7(4):443-503, 1980; 5: Journal of Molluscan Studies 62(3):281-287, 1996; 6: 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; 7: Ecological Monographs 44(1):105-128, 1974; 8: R. van Soest, 1998, personal communication with B. Baker; 9: 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; 10: Instituto Antartico Chileno. Serie Cientifica 39:97-158, 1989; 11: 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; 12: Polar Biology 12:559-585, 1992; 13: Biological Bulletin 198:29-33, 2000; 14: Ross Sea Ecology : Italiantartide Expeditions (1987-1995). FM Faranda, L Guglielmo, A Ianora, eds. Berlin : Springer, 2000. pp. 551-561

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