Sponge Guide

UNCW National Science Foundation Valdosta State University Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Observed Characteristics:

Color:

  • pink-lilac
  • orange

Morphology:

  • massive
  • tube

Consistency:

  • tough

Sample Locations:

  • Bahamas

Xestospongia deweerdtae “free living”

Notes: Pinkish to orange thick encrustations with volcano-shaped oscules. Consistency firmy compressible, crumbly. Spicules are perfect strongyles 325-400 x 10-20 µm arranged in the ectosome as a tangential unispicular reticulation, and in the choanosome as multispicular reticulation. We are nicknaming this species here as “free living” to contrast it with a form which lives associated to species of the genus Plakortis (in particular, the specimens from the Bahamas live over Plakortis deweerdtaephila, also pictured here; see comments there), which were studied by Vicente et al. (2014; 2016).

Author Reference: Lehnert & van Soest, 1999

 

Link: World Porifera Database