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Until now, 127 species of marine sponges have been recorded in the southern Gulf of Mexico (SGoM). In this study, we describe the sponge fauna recorded on 16 coral reefs of the SGoM, defined as the Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), during a period from 2005 to 2019. We report 80 sponge species, including 34 first geographic records for the southern GoM region. The latter are fully described and illustrated, taking into account 24 that represent new records for the GoM: Agelas conifera, Agelas sventres, Agelas wiedenmayeri, Prosuberites carriebowensis, Desmanthus meandroides, Cliona aprica, Cliona dioryssa, Placospongia ruetzleri, Haliclona (Gellius) megasclera, Haliclona (Reniera) aff. portroyalensis, Neopetrosia proxima, Xestospongia arenosa, Calyx podatypa, Shiphonodictyon xamaycaense, Acarnus innominatus, Iotrochota arenosa, Polymastia tenax, Svenzea cristinae, Svenzea flava, Svenzea tubulosa, Svenzea zeai, Timea stenosclera, Stellettinopsis megastylifera, Suberea flavolivescens. The present work highlights the understimated and remarkable diversity of reef-associated sponges within the Campeche Bank Coral reef systems. Present work data was compiled with existing published information to produce an updated list of 161 known sponges in the southern GoM.

Family Biemnidae Hentschel, 1923 Genus Neofibularia Hechtel, 1965, Published as part of Ugalde, Diana, Fernandez, Julio C. C., Gómez, Patricia, Lôbo-Hajdu, Gisele & Simões, Nuno, 2021, An update on the diversity of marine sponges in the southern Gulf of Mexico coral reefs, pp. 1-112 in Zootaxa 5031 (1) on page 20, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5031.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5454380, {"references":["Hechtel, G. J. (1965) A systematic study of the Demospongiae of Port Royal, Jamaica. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 20, 1 - 103."]}

Neofibularia nolitangere (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864) Tables 6, 7; Figs. 13A–C, 16M Synonymy and references: Amphimedon nolitangere Duchassaing & Michelotti (1864: 82); Fibularia massa, Fibulia nolitangere, Fibulia massa, Gellius massa, Neofibularia massa and Neofibularia nolitangere nolitangere: see references compiled in Hartman (1967: 7); Neofibularia nolitangere, Hajdu & van Soest (2002: 648) and Pérez et al. (2017: 11). Type locality. St. Thomas. Material examined. CNPGG-2206, Cayo Arcas reef (20.20183°N, - 91.97583°W), 6.7 m depth, coll. Diana Ugalde, 20 August 2018. Description. Massive habit, growing in laterally fused tubes, sometimes volcano-shaped with an apical depression (Fig. 16M); the largest specimen measures up to 22 × 10 cm. Surface hispid, slightly rugose. Oscules are wide and oval-shaped up to 2 cm in diameter. Color in vivo dark red-brown and beige after fixation. The consistency is crumbly and brittle. Skeleton. Irregular reticulation of fibers cored by several spicules projecting out the fibers; meshes 200 µm in diameter (Figs. 13A–B). Spicules. Megascleres: Strongyles slightly curved 270– 317.6 (27.48)–350/8– 10.8 (1.5)–12 µm (Fig. 13C). Microscleres: straight microxeas 110– 116 (4.1)–120/8– 10.8 (1.5)–12 µm (Fig. 13C 1); raphides occurring singly 100– 107 (6.7)–115/2– 2.3 (0.5)–2.4 µm; sigmas 16– 17 (1.95)–20 µm (Fig. 13C 2). Distribution. Mexico (current records), Bahamas, US (North Carolina, Florida) (de Laubenfels 1936), other countries in the Caribbean Sea (Zea 1987). Remarks. Hartman (1967) revised specimens of Neofibularia nolitangere where sigmas had been overlooked by de Laubenfels (1936), and found them. These specimens perfectly matched additional materials from the former author, and Hechtel (1965) before him, described from Jamaica, including the presence of dermatitis-producing toxins. Specimens described here possess all three categories of microscleres, although the similar lengths of raphides and microxea raises the possibility of the former being merely juveniles of the latter. Contrary to Hartman’s (1967) report, we could not see distinctly arranged trichodragmas for either category, much the less both. Ours is the first record of this species in the SGoM. It was formerly known from the northern part of the GoM, in particular from Florida, as well as from the Caribbean (widely distributed) and the Bahamas. Order Bubarida Morrow & Cárdenas, 2015, Published as part of Ugalde, Diana, Fernandez, Julio C. C., Gómez, Patricia, Lôbo-Hajdu, Gisele & Simões, Nuno, 2021, An update on the diversity of marine sponges in the southern Gulf of Mexico coral reefs, pp. 1-112 in Zootaxa 5031 (1) on pages 20-21, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5031.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5454380, {"references":["Duchassaing, F. P. & Michelotti, G. (1864) Spongiaires de la mer Caraibe. Natuurkundige verhandelingen van de Hollandsche maatschappij der wetenschappen te Haarlem, 21, 1 - 124.","Hartman, W. D. (1967) Revision of Neofibularia (Porifera, Demospongiae), a genus of toxic sponges from the West Indies and Australia. Postilla, 113, 1 - 41. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. part. 9000","Hajdu, E. & van Soest, R. W. M. (2002) Family Desmacellidae Ridley & Dendy, 1886. pp. 642 - 650. In: Hooper, J. N. A. & Van Soest, R. W. M. (Eds.), Systema Porifera. A guide to the classification of sponges. Vol. 1. Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London and Moscow, pp. 642 - 650. https: // doi. org / 10.1007 / 978 - 1 - 4615 - 0747 - 5 _ 69","Perez, T., Diaz, M. C., Ruiz, C., Condor-Lujan, B., Klautau, M., Hajdu, E., Lobo-Hajdu, G., Zea, S., Pomponi, S. A., Thacker, R. W., Carteron, S., Tollu, G., Pouget-Cuvelier, A., Thelamon, P., Marechal, J. P., Thomas, O. P., Ereskovsky, A. V., Vacelet, J. & Boury-Esnault, N. (2017) How a collaborative integrated taxonomic effort has trained new spongiologists and improved knowledge of Martinique Island (French Antilles, eastern Caribbean Sea) marine biodiversity. PLoS ONE, 12, e 0173859. https: // doi. org / 10.1371 / journal. pone. 0173859","Laubenfels, M. W. de (1936) A Discussion of the Sponge Fauna of the Dry Tortugas in Particular and the West Indies in General, with Material for a Revision of the Families and Orders of the Porifera. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1936, 1 - 225.","Zea, S. (1987) Esponjas del Caribe Colombiano. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas - INVEMAR, Santa Marta, 283 pp.","Hechtel, G. J. (1965) A systematic study of the Demospongiae of Port Royal, Jamaica. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 20, 1 - 103."]}

Over the past seven decades, particularly since the discovery of the first marine-derived nucleosides, spongothymidine and spongouridine, from the Caribbean sponge Cryptotethya crypta in the early 1950s, marine natural products have emerged as unique, renewable and yet under-investigated pools for discovery of new drug leads with distinct structural features, and myriad interesting biological activities. Marine sponges are the most primitive and simplest multicellular animals, with approximately 8900 known described species, although more than 15,000 species are thought to exist worldwide today. These marine organisms potentially represent the richest pipeline for novel drug leads. Mycale (Arenochalina) and Clathria are recognized marine sponge genera belonging to the order Poecilosclerida, whereas Biemna was more recently reclassified, based on molecular genetics, as a new order Biemnida. Together, these sponge genera contribute to the production of physiologically active molecular entities with diverse structural features and a wide range of medicinal and therapeutic potentialities. In this review, we provide a comprehensive insight and up-to-date literature survey over the period of 1976–2018, focusing on the chemistry of the isolated compounds from members of these three genera, as well as their biological and pharmacological activities, whenever available. © 2018 by the authors. Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the mission sector of the Ministry of High Education of the Arab Republic of Egypt (Egyptian cultural bureau in Paris and Athens); Amr El-Demerdash’s, and Mohamed Tammam’s joint supervision were fully funded and supported.

Cedro, Victor R., Hajdu, Eduardo, Correia, Monica D. (2013): Three new intertidal sponges (Porifera: Demospongiae) from Brazil's fringing urban reefs (Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil), and support for Rhabderemia's exclusion from Poecilosclerida. Journal of Natural History 47 (33-34): 2151-2174, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2013.792962, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2013.792962