| Demospongiae |
Poecilosclerida |
Merliidae |
Merlia normani |
1 |
Orange, thin and hard encrustation on the underside of laminar corals or on cave walls. Characteristic clavadisc spicules. This species is a sclerosponge but may be devoid of basal massive calcareous skeleton (form previously known as Merlia deficiens Vacelet, 1980, see van Soest, 1984b). Our material apparently does not have a basal skeleton but we did not check for it. Original name from Arch. Madeira, W. Africa, but seems to be a widespread species from the Indian Ocean, The Mediterranean, E. and W. Atlantic. |
Kirkpatrick, 1908 |
orange,encrusting,soft |
