(Esper, 1791-1794)

Species Overview

Antho (Antho) dichotoma (Esper, 1794) is a thinly and dichotomously branched sponge with a finely hispid surface. Colour is yellowish with reddish tinges. The species is common in deeper waters of NW Europe, especially in the Norwegian fjord area, and the Arctic, having its southern limits along the coasts of Ireland.

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Yellowish with a reddish tinge.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: Dichotomously branched sponge, up to 30 cm high. Branches thin, about 0.5 cm in diameter. Surface hispid through protruding spicules. Axially strengthened, thus difficult to break. General consistency firm, barely compressible. No apparent oscules.
Spicules: (Antho dichotoma spics) Megascleres: Ectosomal subtylostyles with microspined heads are 250-535 x 3-4 µm; structural megascleres are predominantly smooth, or lightly spined choanosomal styles, 150-210 x 9.5-14 µm making up the choanosomal reticulation; ectosomal protruding styles are 350-3000 x 12-18 µm.
Microscleres: Palmate isochelas of 12-28 µm and toxas in two size categories: 190-305 µm with acanthose apices, and 35-95 µm.
Skeleton: An axial and extra-axial skeleton are developed: extra-axial skeleton consists of ectosomal subtylostyles in bouquets and long single styles erect on the axial reticulation and protruding far beyond the surface. The axial skeleton consists of spongin enforced longitudinal spicule tracts and interconnecting tracts, both consisting of short slightly acanthose or smooth styles, occasionally modified to strongyles.
Ecology: In deep water, below 40 m, but generally below 100 m.
Distribution: From the Kola Peninsula in the North (Koltun, 1959) to the west coast of Ireland (Stephens, 1921).
Etymology: The name refers to the branching pattern.
Type specimen information: Type (Spongia dichotoma) probably lost.

Remarks

Related species of similar shape occur in the southern parts of the area: Antho (Antho) involvens (Schmidt, 1864) may have encrusting as well as thinly branching forms; the ill-known Antho (Acarnia) erecta (Ferrer-Hernandez, 1922) has a bladed-branching form dissimilar to A. dichotoma. Both differ from A. dichotoma in having the choanosomal styles/strongyles entirely acanthose.
Source: Van Soest and Stone, 1986.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Porifera
Class Demospongiae
Order Poecilosclerida
Suborder Microcionina
Family Microcionidae
Subfamily Ophlitaspongiinae
Genus Antho
Subgenus Antho
Species Antho dichotoma

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Synonym of Antho (Antho) dichotoma (Linnaeus, 1767)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Spongia dichotoma n.sp. Esper, 1791-1794: 202, pl. X
Raspailia dichotoma: Ehlers, 1870: 8
Raspailia moebii n.sp. Schmidt, 1875: 120; Thiele, 1903: 394.
Dictyocylindrus abyssorum n.sp. Carter, 1876: 232, pl. XII fig. 3, pl. XV fig. 25.
Clathria abyssorum: Vosmaer, 1880: 154; Arndt, 1913: 119.
Raspailia abyssorum: Fristedt, 1885: 48, pl. IV fig. 1.
Clathria dichotoma: Arnesen, 1903: 21, pl. III fig. 4, pl. VI fig. 8; Stephens, 1921: 55; Koltun, 1959: 184, fig. 145.
Clathria abyssorum: Arndt, 1913: 119.
Dictyoclathria dichotoma: Topsent, 1920: 21; Burton, 1930a: 501; Burton, 1931: 6; Arndt, 1935: 81, fig. 169.
Esperiopsis artemisinae n.sp. Brøndsted, 1932: 9, figs. 3-4.
Antho dichotoma: Alander, 1942: 63; Burdon-Jones and Tambs-Lyche, 1960: 5; Van Soest and Stone, 1986: 44.

Alander, H., 1942. Sponges from the Swedish west-coast and adjacent waters. Thesis Lund Univ., 95 pp., 16 pls.

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.

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

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.

Carter, H.J., 1876. Descriptions and figures of deep-sea sponges and their spicules from the Atlantic Ocean, dredged up on board HMS"Porcupine" chiefly in 1869 (concluded). Annls. Mag. nat. Hist., (4) 18: 307-324.

Ehlers, E., 1870. Die Esper'schen Spongien in der zoologisches Sammlung der K. Universität Erlangen. E.Th. Jacob, Erlangen, 36 pp.

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.

Koltun, V.M., 1959. [The Cornacuspongida of the northern and far-eastern seas of the USSR. Keys to the fauna of the USSR]. Akademia Nauk, Moscow, Leningrad, 236 pp., XLII pls.

Schmidt, O., 1875. Nordsee Expedition, 1872. II. Spongien. Jahresber.Comm. Unters. Meeres,1875: 115-120

Soest, R.W.M. van, and S.M. Stone, 1986. Antho brattegardi sp.n. (Porifera: Poecilosclerida), with remarks on and a key to the Clathriids of Norwegian waters. Sarsia, 71: 41-48.

Stephens, J., 1921a. Marine Porifera. Clare Island survey, 59. Roy. Irish Acad. Proc., 31: 11-41

Thiele, J., 1903. Beschreibung einiger unzureichend bekannten monaxonen Spongien. Arch. Naturgesch., 67 (1): 375-398.

Topsent, E., 1920b. Spongiaires du Musée zoologique de Strassbourg. Bull. Inst. Océanogr. Monaco, 381: 1-36.

Vosmaer, G.C.J., 1880. The sponges of the Leyden Museum. 1. The family of the Desmacidinae. Notes Leyden Mus., 2: 99-164.

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