(Bowerbank, 1866)

Species Overview

Eurypon clavatum (Bowerbank, 1866) is a hispid, thin, yellow encrustation on pebbles and shells in deeper water off the west coasts of Britain and France.

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Bright yellow.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: Thinly encrusting on pebbles and shells. Size up to 2 cm in lateral expansion. Surface strongly hispid, hairy, due to projecting spicules. Oscules small and dispersed. Consistency soft.
Spicules: (Eurypon clavatum spics) Smooth long styles to tylostyles: up to 1500 x 18 µm; short thin styles: 500 x 3 µm; acanthostyles, of extremely variable length, the smaller entirely spined, the larger partly smooth: 65-600 µm.
Skeleton: Smooth styles erect on the substrate surrounded by acanthostyles; thin styles form bundles or bouquets at the surface where the shaft of the smooth styles pierce the surface membrane.
Ecology: On pebbles, bryozoans and Lophelia, from 45 m downwards to at least 1300 m.
Distribution: Shetlands, Roscoff, Iles de Glénan, SW Ireland, Norway.
Etymology: clavatus (Latin) = club-shaped, referring to the shape of the tylostyles.
Type specimen information: The holotype is in the Natural History Museum, London: BMNH 1877.5.21.1556
(including 2 unregistered BMNH slides made from type,
and MNHN DT942) – Shetland Is.

Remarks

This species is close to Eurypon coronula in habit, colour and spicule sizes, but that species has peculiar whorls of spines on the acanthostyles.
Source: Arndt, 1935.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Porifera
Class Demospongiae
Order Poecilosclerida
Suborder Microcionina
Family Raspailiidae
Subfamily Raspailiinae
Genus Eurypon
Species Eurypon clavatum

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Eurypon clavatum (Bowerbank, 1866)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Hymeraphia clavata n.sp. Bowerbank, 1866: 143; 1874: pl. XXVI figs. 4-9.
Hymeraphia plicata n.sp. Schmidt, 1873: 148; Thiele, 1903: 386, fig. 18.
Eurypon clavatum: Thiele, 1903: 386, fig. 18; Topsent, 1891a: 528; Stephens, 1921: 48; Burton, 1930a: 492; Arndt, 1935: 85, fig. 178; Borojevic et al., 1968: 14; Descatoire, 1969a: 190; Cabioch, 1973: 5.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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