Notes: Creamy pink groups of crumbly tubes, often attached to gorgonians. Its skeleton is made up of the red alga Jania adherens with spongin and there are varaious kinds of foreign spicules embedded in the tissue. Florida specimens tend to be a bit more fleshy than those from the Bahamas and their interior is contrastingly orange-yellow; coincidentally, two specimens examined had as the only "foreign" spicule a straight, thin oxea (150-350 µm), but not distributed throughout the tissue. However, we cannot rule the possibility that the Florida specimens belong to a different species which also uses Jania algae as supporting skeleton (see also Hyrtios? sp. in this guide).

Author Reference: (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864)

Link: World Porifera Database