Notes: Tan to brown with vinaceous tinges, tangled, repent, crooked and anastomosed, often flattened, branches, or straight erect branches with blunt ends; branches are somewhat elastic and their consistency is slightly compressible, not stiff or crumbly. Here we are following the description of Cribrochalina dura by Wiedenmayer (1977). What Wilson (1902) originally described has also been placed under genus Petrosia [but different from P. dura (Nardo, 1883) from The Mediterranean]. However, our material and Wilson (1902) and Wiedenmayer (1977) descriptions clearly show the skeletal architecture of Cribrochalina, made of a reticulation of ascending and interconnecting thick multispicular tracts cemented by spongin. Petrosia, in contrast, has a more isotropic and paucispicular reticulation. Hence the different consistencies, tough in Cribrochalina and brittle in Petrosia. Pharetronema zingiberis Sollas 1879 from Jamaica may be conspecific with this species, in which case its name should take priority. At Santa Marta, Colombia, there are branching individuals with rather flat and wide branches intermediate between C. dura and C. vasculum (Lamarck, 1814), also pictured here. As tupical regular vase and fan-shaped individuals are absent at Santa Marta, Zea (1987) assigned them to C. vasculum. Whether they are C. vasculum or C. dura remains to be determined.

Author Reference: (Wilson, 1902)

Link: World Porifera Database