Bowerbank, 1866

Species Overview

Hymeraphia verticillata Bowerbank (1866) is an encrusting lemon yellow sponge with a granular surface and firm consistency.

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Lemon yellow.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: Thin encrustations, lateral size up to 3.5 x 2 cm. Surface has granular aspect and consistency is firm.
Spicules: (Hymeraphia verticillata spics) Tylostyles, with long, rounded tyle: 1900-2800 x 20-25 µm; centrotylote oxeas: 490-1600 x 12-25 µm; verticillately spined oxeas / strongyles: 90-120 x 4-5 µm; growth stages of the latter may be smoothly polytylote.
Skeleton: Ectosomal: a dense mass of verticillate oxeas/strongyles. Choanosomal: single long tylostyles erect on the substrate, heads downward, pointed ends protruding beyond the surface; bundles of centrotylote oxeas surround these tylostyles.
Ecology: On pebbles, from 50 m downwards to 1000 m.
Distribution: Roscoff, SW Ireland, Shetlands, Orkney, Faroes, Norway.
Etymology: The name refers to the whorls of spines on the oxeas/strongyles.
Type specimen information: The type is in the Natural History Museum, London.

Remarks

The only species with similar granular appearance and spiculation is Halicnemia patera. This is softer in consistency. The microxeas of that species are angularly bent and the spines are not in verticils.
Source: Descatoire, 1966

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Porifera
Class Demospongiae
Order Poecilosclerida
Suborder Microcionina
Family Raspailiidae
Genus Hymeraphia
Species Hymeraphia verticillata

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Hymeraphia verticillata Bowerbank, 1866

Scientific synonyms and common names

Hymeraphia verticillata n.sp. Bowerbank, 1866: 145; 1874: pl. XXVII
Naenia verticillata: Gray, 1867: 526
Laothoe verticillata: Gray, 1867: 543
Halicnemia verticillata: Stephens, 1920: 68; Burton, 1930a: 492; Brøndsted, 1932: 23; Descatoire, 1966: 239, fig. 4; Borojevic et al., 1968: 12; Descatoire, 1969a: 190.

Borojevic, R., L. Cabioch and C. Lévi, 1968. Spongiaires. Inventaire Faune Marine de Roscoff. 44 pp.

Bowerbank, J.S., 1866. A monograph of the British Spongiadae, II. Ray Society, London: i-xx, 1-388.

Bowerbank, J.S., 1874. A monograph of the British Spongiadae, III. Ray Society, London: i-xvii, 1-367, pls. I-XCII.

Brøndsted, H.V., 1932. Marine Spongia. The Zoology of the Faroes, 1 (1, III): 1-34.

Burton, M., 1930a. Norwegian sponges from the Norman collection. Proc. zool. Soc. London, 2: 487-546.

Descatoire, A., 1966. Sur quelques Démosponges de l'Archipel de Glénan. Cah. Biol. Mar., 7: 231-246.

Descatoire, A., 1969a. Peuplements sessiles de l' Archipel de Glénan. I. Inventaire: Spongiaires. Vie Milieu, (B) 20(1,B): 177-210.

Gray, J.E., 1867. Notes on the arrangement of sponges, with the description of some new genera. Proc. zool. Soc. London, 1867: 492-558, 2 pls.

Stephens, J., 1921. Sponges of the coast of Ireland. II.-The Tetraxonida (Concluded). Fisheries Ireland, Sci. Investigations, 1920, II [1921]: 1-75.

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