Color:

yellow
green

Morphology:

encrusting
tube

Consistency:

soft

Sample Locations:

Bahamas

Printable View

Verongula sp-."fouled"

Notes: Groups of tubes arising from an ecrusting or massive base, often irregularly fused, with the surface heavily fouled and filled with trapped sediment. The color is bright yellow with purple or greenish tinges, but it is often invisible through the fouling. We had initially placed these specimens under similiarly-shaped but unfouled Verongula rigida, also pictured here, but separated them upon suggestion of M. Cristina Díaz (pers. comm.), which considers this morphotype as a different, still undescribed species of Verongula. Upon closer inspection, one can see at the surface the honeycombed pattern of walls of the pithed spongin network characteristic of the genus. The latter is useful to distinguish this species with similarly looking Suberea sp-."soft Aplysina lacunosa, also pictured here, which has only sparse, dendritic, pithed spongin fibers.