- Notes: Dark brown to black (sometimes dark green), thick and large, soft cushions with a few, slightly elevated, large oscules. Consistency is soft but grainy. Underwater strobe brings lighter brown color to some photos. A dark ink is exuded when handled and fixed, which strongly stains the fixative. Compared to other Caribbean species of the genus it is less soft, and has larger spicules, of a rather uniform size (usually >150 µm). In some areas there are light brown (cinnamon-tan) specimens with the same spicule shape and size that apparently do not produce the dark exudate, but more work is needed to find if they belong to a different species. Herein we have placed them as separate morphotypes of P. halichondroides. We have placed any dark Plakortis with larger spicules exceeding 150 µm in lenght within P. halichondroides, in contradiction to Diaz & van Soest (1984) and Moraes & Muricy (2003) who report some P. angulospiculatus with greater spicule sizes.
- Author Reference: (Wilson, 1902)
| Color: |
| black |
| brown |
| cinnamon-tan |
| green |
| orange |
| Morphology: |
| encrusting |
| massive |
| Consistency: |
| crumbly |
| soft |
| tough |
| Locations: |
| Bahamas - Cat Cays - Bimini |
| Bahamas - Cat Island, SW |
| Bahamas - Great Inagua |
| Bahamas - Hogsty Reef |
| Bahamas - Little San Salvador |
| Bahamas - Plana Cays |
| Bahamas - San Salvador |
Images of Plakortis halichondrioides-dark morphotype :