Clathrina chrysea
Introduction '''''Clathrina chrysea''''' is a species of calcareous sponge from New Caledonia. The species epithet refers to the light yellow colour of the sponge.
Description Cormus formed of thin, regularly anastomosed tubes. There are no water-collecting tubes. The skeleton of the tubes has no special organisation, comprising a thin meshwork of equiangular and equiradiate triactines. Actines are straight and conical, with a sharp distal tip. They are slightly undulated at the tip. Biochemical studies separated ''Clathrina clathrus'' fromanother yellow clathrina earlier named as ''Clathrina aurea'', suggesting that ''C. clathrus'' is not widespread. Based on this result, Borojevic & Klautau (2000) recognized a specimen from New Caledonia as a new species. The main difference between this and other yellow clathrinas relates to the tip of the actines of the triactines, which is sharp in ''C. chrysea'' and rounded in ''C. clathrus'' and ''C. aurea''. The yellow colour of the cormus and the skeleton composed only of triactines with cylindrical and undulated actines suggest that these clathrinas constitute a group of closely related species. Breitfuss (1897) reported a yellow clathrina he called ''C. clathrus'' in the Indo-Pacific region (Ternate). Borojevic & Klautau (2000) commented that he was probably referring to ''C. chrysea''. In the original description of ''C. chrysea'', the micrometryof the triactines was 105 mm (±9 mm)/10 mm (±1 mm).
References  World Register of Marine Species entry