(Bowerbank, 1874)

Species Overview

Eurypon coronula (Bowerbank, 1874) is a thinly ecrusting, orange-yellow, hairy sponge, recorded from deep water. It has characteristic spiculation (microscopic examination).

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Orange-yellow.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: Thinly encrusting. Size up to 2.5 cm in lateral expansion. Surface hispid, hairy. Consistency soft and slimy.
Spicules: (Eurypon coronula spics) Smooth tylostyles with pronounced heads: 600-1200 µm; acanthostyles, entirely spined, with spiky thorns at the head arranged in two whorls, like a crown: 250 µm. Apparently there are no special ectosomal spicules.
Skeleton: Spicules arranged perpendicular to the substrate, heads down.
Ecology: On pebbles, from 60 m downwards.
Distribution: Shetlands, Norway, Arctic, Roscoff.
Etymology: The name refers to the condition of the acanthostyles.
Type specimen information: The type is in the Natural History Museum, London: BMNH 1910.1.1.84 (dry) + BMNH 1910.1.1.2321 (slide). Norman Collection.

Remarks

The whorls of spines on the acanthostyles make this an easily recognizable sponge.
Source: Arndt, 1935 (as Hymedesmia).

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

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Eurypon coronula (Bowerbank, 1874)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Hymeraphia coronula n.sp. Bowerbank, 1874: 246, pl. LXXIX figs. 1-4.
Hymedesmia coronula: Burton, 1930a: 494; Arndt, 1935: 65, fig. 124.
Eurypon coronula: Topsent, 1936a: 66; Borojevic et al., 1968: 14

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., 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.

Topsent, E., 1936a. Éponges observées dans les parages de Monaco. 2e partie. Bull. Inst. océanogr. Monaco, 686: 1-70.

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