- Notes: Excavating sponge. It excavates and encrusts massive corals. Externally it appears as a bright red encrustation with many scattered elevated papillae and one or several large and deep oscules with a high dermal collar. Often riddled with zoanthids. Excavations are deep, filled with orange tissue. We have included here the papillated forms which in some areas are dominant, perhaps because coralline or turf algae (or predators?) do not allow them to grow larger and fuse papillae. From the above, it is our belief that Cliona laticavicola Pang, 1973 (papillated sponges described originally from the same locality of C. delitrix) are either young individuals or ecophenotypes of C. delitrix.
- Author Reference: Pang, 1973
- Link: World Porifera Database
| Color: |
| green |
| orange |
| red |
| yellow |
| Morphology: |
| encrusting |
| papillated |
| Consistency: |
| crumbly |
| hard |
| soft |
| tough |
| Locations: |
| Bahamas - Crooked Island |
| Bahamas - Great Inagua |
| Bahamas - Little San Salvador |
| Bahamas - Plana Cays |
| Bahamas - San Salvador |
| Bahamas - Stirrups Cays, N Berry Islands |
| Bahamas - Sweetings Cay |
| United States - Florida Keys |
Images of Cliona delitrix :