| Demospongiae |
Hadromerida |
Placospongiidae |
Placospherastra antillensis |
7 |
Erroneously being called Diplastrella megastellata (Hechtel, 1965), which is a good, different species. Bright red or orange encrustations. Tough and leathery cortex. Suface pierced by rounded to elongated furrows with slightly elevated borders; furrows are not connected to each other; oscules round and large, interspersed throughout the surface, with slightly elevated collars. There is a cortex of spheraster spicules (developmental stages diplaster-like), supported by rather sparse thick tracts of tylostyle spicules. A small category of micraster spicules is present. Although Placospherastra is described as having polygonal armor plates as Placospongia, from live photos this characteristic is not clear. Unfortunately, we failed in disturbing the specimens previous to taken the photos, to have them close the furrows and show the plates. However, the spiculation closely conforms to this genus and its species antillensis as originally described. From light microscopy alone, we have not been able to confirm the presence of rings of small spines ornamenting the main spines of the spherasters. |
van Soest, 2009 |
red,orange,encrusting,tough |
