Morphogenesis of Tedania gurjanovae Koltun (Porifera)

Abstract

During the course of a study of the marine sponges of the San Juan Archipelago, Washington, the discovery of several specimens of Tedania gurjanovae Koltun (Koltun, 1958 :65 , fig. 20) was of special interest because of the opportunity provided to observe its larval metamorphosis. This species had been known previously only from the eastern part of the Tatar Strait, off Sakhalin, USSR, at depths of 60 to 100 m (Koltun, 1958, 1959) . The present specimens (No. 30, 58, 90, 112, lot 163) were dredged in depths of 73 to 198 m in President Channel and San Juan Channel, San Juan Archipelago, Washington, and now reside in this writer's personal collection. An account of the morphology, larval metamorphosis, ecology, and taxonomy of the Washington population is given here.