(Bowerbank, 1866)

Species Overview

Poecillastra compressa (Bowerbank, 1866) is a whitish or yellowish laterally flattened massive or cup-shaped sponge with its oscules concentrated on one of the two sides. It has a friable to hard consistency. It occurs in deep water.

Taxonomic Description

Colour: White or yellowish.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: (Normania crassa) (Ecionemia compressa) (Hymeniacidon placentula) Laterally flattened masses, leaf-or cup-shaped, with oscules and pores on opposite sides. Size up to 8 cm high, 15 cm in lateral expansion, with sides up to 2 cm in thickness. Surface more or less smooth. Oscules up to 3 mm in diameter. Consistency friable but hard.
Spicules: Megascleres: Oxeas: 1375-1900 x 16-45 µm; orthotriaenes passing into calthropses, very irregularly shaped, rays 170-320 x 20-25 µm.
Microscleres: Spined microxeas, centrotylote: 80-200 x 3 µm; spirasters with spined rays: 28-33 µm; amphiasters with thin, spined rays: 20-26 µm.
Skeleton: Ectosomal skeleton a thin crust of microscleres supported by tangential intercrossing oxeas, carried by a layer of orthotriaenes/calthropses. Choanosomal skeleton a confused mass of oxeas.
Ecology: On overhangs and on dead corals, from 12-1300 m.
Distribution: Norway, Shetlands, Hebrides, Rockall, SW Ireland, W France; Mediterranean.
Etymology: The name refers to the laterally flattened shape.
Type specimen information: The type is in the Natural History Museum, London.

Remarks

There is a second species of Poecillastra in the area, viz. P. armata described by Hanitsch (1895) from the West coast of Portugal. It differs from P. compressa in the growth form (10 x 5 x 5 cm) and in the possession of anatriaenes. It is not treated here since no illustrations of habit or spicules of this form are available.
Source: Topsent, 1894.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Porifera
Class Demospongiae
Order Astrophorida
Family Pachastrellidae
Genus Poecillastra
Species Poecillastra compressa

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Poecillastra compressa (Bowerbank, 1866)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Ecionema compressa n.sp. Bowerbank, 1866: 55; 1874: pl. IX
Normania crassa n.sp. Norman, 1869: 297; Bowerbank, 1874: 258, pl. LXXXI figs. 1-12
Hymeniacidon placentula n.sp. Bowerbank, 1874: 189, pl. LXXII
Poecillastra compressa: Topsent, 1891a: 526; 1894: 384; Stephens, 1914: 15; Burton, 1930a: 487; Burton, 1931: 2; Arndt, 1935: 25; Burdon-Jones and Tambs-Lyche, 1960: 6; Könnecker, 1973: 455.
Pachastrella stylifera n.sp. Lendenfeld, 1897: 82, figs. 1-2.
Pachastrella compressa: Borojevic et al., 1968: 4.

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

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.

Burdon-Jones, C. and H. Tambs-Lyche, 1960. Observations on the fauna of the North Brattholmen stone-coral reef near Bergen. Årbok Univ. Bergen. Mat.-Naturv. Ser., 1960 (4): 1-24.

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.

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

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.

Stephens, J., 1915. Sponges of the coast of Ireland. 1.-The Triaxonida and part of the Tetraxonida. Fisheries Ireland, Sci. Investigations, 1914, IV [1915]: 1-43.

Topsent, E., 1891a. Essai sur la faune de spongiaires de Roscoff. Arch. Zool. expér. gén., (2) 9: 523-554.

Topsent, E., 1894. Étude monographique des spongiaires de France. I. Tetractinellida. Arch. Zool. exp. gén., (3) 2: 259-400.

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