Morphogenesis of Tedania gurjanovae Koltun (Porifera) 
Gerald J. Bakus 1 
During the course of a study of the marine 
sponges of the San Juan Archipelago, Wash- 
ington, 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 meta- 
morphosis. This species had been known pre- 
viously 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 Archi- 
pelago, 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. 
The suggestions and criticisms offered by Dr. 
Dixy L. Ray, Dr. Paul Illg, Dr. Melville Hatch, 
Dr. Standish Mallory, and Dr. Willard Hart- 
man are appreciated. Many others contributed 
to this study. Support was given by the National 
Science Foundation during the summers of 
1958, 1959, and 1961, and the facilities at the 
University of Washington Friday Harbor Lab- 
oratories were used. Translations from Russian 
to English of both sponge distribution records 
and a description of Tedania gurjanovae Koltun 
were made by Dr. Gordon Orians. 
ADULT MORPHOLOGY 
Tedania gurjanovae is an amorphous encrust- 
ing sponge that shows a tendency to macerate 
after being dissected or upon being collected in 
broken pieces and preserved. It commonly meas- 
ures up to 12 mm thick but broken pieces of 
No. 163 attained a size of up to 4 cm by 3 cm 
by 2 cm. These fragments probably represented 
1 Allan Hancock Foundation, University of South- 
ern California, Los Angeles, California. Manuscript 
received July 2, 1962. 
portions of a larger specimen. Specimen No. 90 
is an encrusting form that intermittently covers 
plates of Balanus and measures up to 1 mm 
thick. 
The color in life ranges from very light cin- 
namon to Lido (Maerz and Paul, 1950: pi. 12, 
D-4, F-5; pi. 13, C-3). In alcohol it is beige to 
nearly white. The species is odorless so far as 
is known. 
The sponge surface may be smooth but often 
is gently to roughly undulated (Fig. 1). It is 
feltlike to the touch. The consistency is mod- 
erately soft and spongy. The surface may be 
slippery because of detritus and production of 
mucus. The dermal anatomy is considerably ob- 
scured in some preserved specimens and ob- 
servations on living material are useful Oscules 
may be absent but, if present, are usually numer- 
ous, irregularly distributed, open at the body 
surface, and measure up to 1 mm in diameter. 
Some oscules have an accumulation of hastate 
tornotes around their periphery. Pores are 
abundant and range from 21 to 68 jx in greatest 
diameter. In No. 163 they were no longer ob- 
served after about one hour in the preservative, 
indicating that they had closed. 
The dermal membrane measures from 20 to 
25 /x thick. Hastate tornotes (Fig. 2b) , arranged 
more or less perpendicular to the body surface, 
occur immediately below the dermal membrane. 
They are loosely distributed and often simulate 
short wisps of commercial glass wool. Groups of 
about 10 perpendicular tornotes occasionally 
occur. In a few regions tornotes are almost 
parallel to the sponge surface. Hastate tornotes 
and styles (Fig. 2a) sometimes penetrate up to 
50 \x beyond the dermal membrane. 
The endosomal mesenchyme ranges from 
being loose and fluffy to cotton-like. Style tracts 
extend toward and sometimes penetrate the 
body surface. The tracts measure from 34 to 55 
fx in diameter and the styles are united by small 
amounts of spongin. Numerous hastate tornotes 
and some styles are found irregularly distributed 
58 
