(Kent, 1870)

Species Overview

Mycale (Rhaphidotheca) marshallhalli (Kent, 1870) is a soft cushion-shaped deep-water species occurring along most rocky coasts of Europe. Its characteristic feature is the possession of thick tylote shaped exotyles (microscopic examination necessary).

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Beige.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: Cushion or thick encrustations, 1-3 cm wide, 1 cm high. Surface hispid. Consistency soft and fragile.
Spicules: Megascleres: Styles slightly constricted near the base ("mycalostyles"), fusiform shaft: 500-800 x 16 µm; exotyles with a large but variably shaped and sized elongated tyle, protruding beyond the surface of the sponge: 800-1400 x 15-25 (tyles 35-55 µm).
Microscleres: Palmate anisochelae in two size categories: 25-40 µm and 75-90 µm (arranged in rosettes); sigmas: 13-20 µm; trichodragmas: 60-80 µm.
Skeleton: Strongly developed plumose spicule tracts, up to 150 µm in thickness, spreading out near the surface to carry a mass of tangential megascleres. Beyond that surface skeleton, individual exotyles protrude some distance.
Ecology: On rocks and dead corals in deep water, from 75 m downwards.
Distribution: Off Spain and Portugal, W coast of Ireland, between Scotland and the Faroes, Norway.
Etymology: Named after Marshall Hall, a wealthy barrister, who owned the yacht Norna, with which W. Saville Kent did dredging operations in May and June 1870 off Spain and Portugal.
Type specimen information: The type is in the Natural History Museum, London.

Remarks

The species was originally assigned to the genus Rhaphidotheca which was characterized by the possession of the peculiar exotyles. It is here considered a member of the genus Mycale, but assigned to a subgenus Rhaphidotheca in accordance with the Systema Porifera .
Source: Stephens, 1921.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Porifera
Class Demospongiae
Order Poecilosclerida
Suborder Mycalina
Family Mycalidae
Genus Mycale
Subgenus Rhaphidotheca
Species Mycale marshallhalli

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Synonym of Mycale (Rhaphidotheca) marshallhalli (Kent, 1870)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Rhaphidotheca marshall-halli n.sp. Kent, 1870: 219; Stephens, 1916: 242; 1921: 23, pl. II figs. 1-2; Burton, 1930a: 490
Esperella rhopalophora n.sp. Schmidt, 1873: pl. I fig. 12; Arnesen, 1903: 10, pl. I fig. 7
Rhaphidotheca affinis n.sp. Carter, 1879:
Rhaphidotheca rhopalophora: Arndt, 1935: 51, fig. 87

Arndt, W., 1935. Porifera. Tierwelt Nord.-Ostsee, IIIa: 1-140, figs. 1-239.

Arnesen, E., 1903. Spongien von der norwegischen Küste, Monaxonida: Halichondrina. Bergens Mus. Årbok, 1903 (1): 1-30, pls. I-VII.

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

Carter, H.J., 1879. On a new species of excavating sponge (Alectona millari) ; and on a new species of Rhaphidotheca (R. affinis). J. roy. microsc. Soc., 2: 493-499.

Hajdu, E., 1995. Macroevolutionary patterns within the Demosponge Order Poecilosclerida. Thesis University of Amsterdam, 173 pp.

Kent, W.S., 1870. On two new siliceous sponges taken in the late Dredging-Expedition of the yacht Norna off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., (4) 6: 219.

Schmidt, O., 1873b. Die wirbellosen Thiere der Ostsee. Jahresber.Comm. Unters. Meeres,1: 147-148

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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