Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Haliclona (Soestella) spuma
Esponja, Sponge
This is one of the most common species of sponges in the Galápagos, found is shallow waters throughout the archipelago, found growing on rock at depth to 27 m (Hickman, et al. 2021).
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Porifera
Class
Demospongiae
Order
Haplosclerida
Family
Chalinidae
Genus
Haliclona (Soestella)
Species
spuma
Taxon category: Accepted
Holotype: MCCDRS9446, Gordon Rocks, Santa Cruz Island, 0.567° S, 90.142° W, 27 m, 22 Jan 2003; Paratypes: MCCDRS9447, Gordon Rock, 0.567° S, 90.685° W, 24 m, 20 Jul 2003; MCCDRS9448, Guy Fawkes Island, 0.515° S, 90.527° W, 26 m, 26 Jul 2003; Type locality: Gordon Rocks of Santa Cruz (Sim-Smith et al., 2021).
Origin: Endemic
Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.
Distribution: Galapagos Islands: Gordon Rocks, Guy Fawkes Island, Rabida Island, Maria Elena Islet (Pinzón Island) (Sim-Smith et al., 2021).
- Hickman, C.P. Jr. Sim-Amith, C. & Michelle, K. (2021) A field guide to Sponge of Galápagos. Sugar Spring Press, Lexington, Virginia.
- Horton, T. Horton, T., Kroh, A., Ahyong, S., Bailly, N., Boyko, C. B., Brandão, S. N., Gofas, S., Hooper, J. N. A., Hernandez, F., Holovachov, O., Mees, J., Molodtsova, T. N., Paulay, G., Decock, W., Dekeyzer, S., Poffyn, G., Vandepitte, L., Vanhoorne, B., Adlard, R., ... Zhao, Z. (2021) World Register of Marine Species. Available from https://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ.
- IUCN (2023) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2023-1. Https://www.iucnredlist.org
- Sim-Smith, C. CLEVELAND HICKMAN, J. R., & Kelly, M. (2021) New shallow water sponges (Porifera) from the Gálapagos Islands Zootaxa, 5012(1), 1–71. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5012.1.1
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Haliclona (Soestella) spuma", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=18827. Accessed 31 October 2026.