Observed Characteristics:
Color:
- pink-lilac
- orange
Morphology:
- massive
- tube
Consistency:
- tough
Locations:
- Bahamas
Species Description and Notes
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
Tissue and Spicule Images
Images
deweerdtae “free living”
- Location: Plana Cays, Bahamas
- Photographer: Sven Zea