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Cliona varians
Cliona varians (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864)
Brown variable sponge
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Family:  Clionaidae (Boring sponges)
Max. size: 
Environment:  reef-associated; brackish; marine
Distribution:  Western Central Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific.
Diagnosis:  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:  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).
IUCN Red List Status: Not Evaluated (N.E.) Ref. 123251)
Threat to humans: 
Country info:   
 

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