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Cliona varians, Brown variable sponge

Common name (e.g. turtle)

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Cliona varians   (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864)

Brown variable sponge

Native range | All suitable habitat | Point map | Year 2050
This map was computer-generated and has not yet been reviewed.
Cliona varians  AquaMaps  Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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No drawings available for Clionaidae.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | CoL | ITIS | WoRMS

Demospongiae | Clionaida | Clionaidae

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Reef-associated; brackish.  Tropical

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions

Western Central Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm

Short description Morphology

Thick encrustations that may cover several square meters substratum. Oscules are relatively large, paler and slightly elevated. May be crumbly or tough (Ref. 81728). Grows either irregularly massive, hemispheric, globular, or partly divided into irregular lobes. Encrusting patches cover 1 to 2 m in a round or semi-circular pattern. Smooth and non-porous surface with typical irregular bumps or lobes, often partly covered by sediment. Color: variously yellow, tan, green or brown. Thin encrustations may be dark green. Internally pale yellowish, with a dark brown hemispheric form with an orange interior. Spongin fibers absent. Presence of small anthosigma spicules is a unique and diagnostic characteristic (Ref. 85482).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Common on coral reefs, reef flats, seagrass beds and lagoons. Burrows in dead corals. Sporadic shallow excavations on live corals (Ref. 85482). Also in mangrove ponds (Ref. 86789).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Members of the class Demospongiae are hermaphroditic. Life cycle: The zygote develops into parenchymella larva (free-swimming) before settling down on a substrate where it grows into a young sponge.

Main reference References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Engel, S. and J.R. Pawlik. 2005. (Ref. 837)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2024-2)

  Not Evaluated 

CITES status (Ref. 108899)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Human uses


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Internet sources

BHL | BOLD Systems | CISTI | DiscoverLife | FAO(Publication : search) | Fishipedia | GenBank (genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | Gomexsi | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | PubMed | Tree of Life | Wikipedia (Go, Search) | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969): 21.1 - 27.5, mean 25.2 (based on 148 cells).
Price category (Ref. 80766): Unknown.

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