Estudi faunístic del litoral de Blanes (Girona), II. Sistemàtica d'esponges

Resum

The benthic communities of a little area in the Blanes littoral (Girona, Spain) have been studied for two years. They belong to the upper infralittoral level, between 3 and 12 m deep, and have been studied from 40 inventories obtained from punctual underwater samples and from a general survey of the macroflora and macrofauna. Three bionomic aspects with minor differences have been observed in this area: A, well lighted and surfbeaten zones with a population of photophilous species; B, poor lighted and surf-beaten zones, with more sciaphilous forms, and C, poor lighted and less disturbed zones, of coralligenous character.
This paper deals with the study of the Porifera species found in the above mentioned survey, of which a systematic list is presented. Thirty-nine species of sponges have been obtained; 7 of them are recorded for the first time in the Catalan coast, and of these 5 are new citations for the Iberian Peninsula littoral. The in vivo and picular descriptions of each species, data on their habitat, geographic distribution, substrate, depth and bionomic facies are given. Some general ecological remarks are also made from the abundance distribution of each species in the bionomic zones of the area.