(Linnaeus, 1767)

Species Overview

Phakellia ventilabrum (Linnaeus, 1767) is a cup-or fanshaped species with a greyish brownish colour. Its edges are thin and often frayed. There is a characteristic pattern of ribbed veins fanning out from the stem in the direction of the rim. The oscules are small and on the inner side. It occurs in deeper water on rocks and in gravel beds. It is a common species along most European coasts.

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Grey-beige, also reported as yellow, often with a green tint.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: (Phakellia ventilabrum MCS2) (Phakellia ventilabrum MCS3) (Spongia ventilabrum) Cup-like or lamellate, attached by fairly narrow base, i.e. sub-stipitate. Edge of cup/fan sharp, frayed, not neatly rounded, except in juvenile specimens. Surface even, slightly velvety; no projecting spicules visible to naked eye. In cuplike forms, the interior of the cup is dotted with small openings which are larger than the openings on the outer surface. Both surfaces have a tendency to be marked by an ascending system of vein-like lines. In older specimens the surface can become wrinkled (i.e. rugose), especially towards the base. Exhalant openings (oscules) are confined to one surface; in cuplike forms seen as pin-hole sized openings scattered over the inner surface of the cup. Pores are not visible with the naked eye. Consistency firm, elastic, fairly tough, but becomes laxer in older specimens, when it can become easily torn.
Spicules: (Phakellia ventilabrum spics) Megascleres are long, vermiform strongyles (i.e. flexuous spicules) forming the axlal condensation: 420-525-620 x 7.5 µm, whereas the plumose fibres consist of styles which are slightly curved at the base: 220-420-500 x 7.5 µm. Styles may be supplemented by oxeas. These are mostly anisoxeas, with one end finely tapering and the other blunt or telescoped. No microscleres are present.
Skeleton: (Phakellia Vosmaer) Plumoreticulate. An axial or mesial condensation of densely packed vermiform megascleres with radially arranged ascending plumose fibres arising from the core and branching and anastomosing towards the surface. At the surface they form brusbes. Minimal amounts of spongin encase the spicules.
Ecology: Slightly sheltered locations close to deep water, down to 200 m. At St. John's Point, Donegal, NW Ireland at 30 m on rock ridges. At Skird Rocks, Galway, W Ireland, characteristic of Könnecker's Axinellid association—Axinella polypoides, Axinella infundibuliformis, Diazona violacea, Eunicella verrucosa, Alcyonium glomeratum.
Distribution: Arctic, Atlantic coasts of Europe.
Etymology: ventile (Latin) = fan.
Type specimen information: Neotype BMNH 10.1.1.2687, dry – near Lervig, Norway; MCS voucher BELUM: Mc449, St.John's Pt, Donegal.

Remarks

Similar to Axinella infundibuliformis but often larger, more brittle, with a sharp edge to the cup (rounded in Axinella). Colour is grey, Axinella is slightly brown to yellow. Axinella has trichodragmata and lacks vermiform megascleres. Other lamellate Axinellids recorded from the area include Axinella arctica Vosmaer (1885) which has no sinuous diactines, and Phakellia robusta Bowerbank (1866). The latter differs from P. ventilabrum in having sinuous oxeas in stead of strongyles and much thicker styles.
Source: Ackers et al., 1992 (B.E. Picton, S.M. Stone).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Porifera
Subphylum Cellularia
Class Demospongiae
Order Halichondrida
Family Axinellidae
Genus Phakellia
Species Phakellia ventilabrum

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Phakellia ventilabrum (Linnaeus, 1767)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Spongia ventilabra Linnaeus, 1767: 1296; Ellis and Solander, 1786: 188; Linnaeus (Gmelin), 1791: 3817.
Spongia ventilabrum: Esper, 1791-1794; Montagu, 1818: 105
Spongia scypha n.sp. Montagu, 1818: 107, pl. XV fig. 1
Phakellia ventilabrum: Bowerbank, 1866: 122; 1874: 57, pl. XXII figs. 1-5; Norman, 1869: 297; Fristedt, 1885: 46; Von Lendenfeld, 1897: 86; Arnesen, 1903: 23; Stephens, 1917: 13; 1921: 64; Burton, 1930a: 494; Burton, 1931: 8; Brøndsted, 1932: 23; Arndt, 1935: 90, fig. 191; Burton, 1957: 31; Lévi and Vacelet, 1958: 243; Borojevic et al., 1968: 11; Descatoire, 1969a: 189; Könnecker, 1973: 451; Solórzano and Babio, 1979: 49; Van Soest, 1983: 29; Ackers et al., 1985; 98, figs. 57-58.
Phacellia ventilabrum: Arndt, 1913: 119.

Ackers, R.G., D. Moss, B.E. Picton and S.M.K. Stone, 1985. Sponges of the British Isles ("Sponge IV"). I. Marine Conservation Soc., Ross on Wye, U.K.: 1-107.

Arndt, W., 1913. Zoologische Ergebnisse der ersten Lehr-Expedition der P. Schottländerschen Jubiläums-Stiftung. Jahresber. Schles. Ges. vaterl. Cultur: 110-136.

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.

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.

Burton, M., 1931a. The Folden Fiord. Report on the sponges collected by Mr. Soot-Ryven in the Folden Fiord in the year 1923. Tromsø Mus. Skr., 1 (13): 1-8.

Burton, M., 1957. Plymouth Marine Fauna. 3rd ed. Porifera. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K.: 26-36.

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

Esper, J.C., 1791-1794. Die Pflanzenthieren in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Farben erleuchtet, nebst Beschreibungen, 2: 1-303, pls. 1-109 (sponges: 165-180, 221-282)

Fristedt, K., 1885. Bidrag till kännedomen om de vid sveriges vestra kust lefvande spongiae. K. svensk. Vet.-Akad. Handl., 21 (6): 1-56.

Könnecker, G., 1973. Littoral and benthic investigations on the west coast of Ireland-I. (Section A: Faunistic and ecological studies). The sponge fauna of Kilkieran Bay and adjacent waters. Proc. roy. Irish Acad., 73 (B): 451-472.

Lendenfeld, R. von, 1897. Notes on Rockall island and bank. Reports. On the Spongiida. Trans. roy. Irish Acad., 31 (3): 82-88

Lévi, C. and J. Vacelet, 1958. Éponges récoltées dans l'Atlantique oriental par le "Président Théodore Tissier" (1955-56). Rev. Trav. Inst. Pêch. marit., 22 (2): 225-246.

Montagu, G., 1818. An essay on sponges, with descriptions of all the species that have been discovered on the coast of Great Britain. Mem. Werner nat. Hist. Soc., 2 (1): 67-122, pls. III-XVI.

Norman, A.M., 1869. Notes on a few Hebridean sponges and on a new Desmacidon from Jersey. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., (4) 3: 296-299.

Pallas, P.S., 1766. Elenchus zoophytorum. Hagae, 357 pp.

Soest, R.W.M. van, 1983. Sponzenonderzoek in Nederland. Het Zeepaard, 43 (2): 28-33.

Solórzano, M.R. and C.R. Babio, 1979. Adiciones a la fauna marina de Galicia, I. Demosponjas. Bol. Inst. Esp. Ocean., 5: 43-68.

Stephens, J., 1917. Report on the sponges collected off the coast of Ireland by the dredging expeditions of the Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Dublin Society. Proc. roy. Irish Acad., 34 (B, 1): 1-16.

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

Vosmaer, G.C.J., 1912. On the distinction between the genera Axinella, Phakellia, Acanthella a.o. Zool. Jahrb., 15: 307-322.

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