Description

Description HABITUS. Encrusting, 5 mm thick and 5 cm long (Fig. 2 A). Surface rugose and hispid, with visible canals converging towards oscules. Colour in life bright orange (Fig. 2 A). Consistency of live specimens friable. SKELETON. Choanosomal skeleton formed by bundles of long styles and tylostyles with heads embedded in basal layer of rhabdostyles and sinuous sub-tylostyles. SPICULES. Megascleres: Smooth styles, long and thin, sometimes with modified heads (Fig. 2 B), 800 – (888.33) – 1000 μm long and 5 – (7.16) – 10 μm thick. Smooth tylostyles 410 – (552.5) – 700 μm long and 15 – (18.9) – 25 μm thick (Fig. 2 C). Rather short rhabdostyles with heads variable in shape and with pointed or round extremities (Fig. 2 D), 140 – (252.42) – 415 μm long and 7.5 – (9.75) – 12.5 μm thick. Rhabdostyles often sinuous or modified into oxeas or strongyles (Fig. 2 E). Habitat Species lives on a rocky cliff at a depth of 25 – 30 m; Chilean fjords.

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Porifera

Class: Demospongiae

Order: Agelasida

Family: Hymerhabdiidae

Genus: Hymerhabdia

Species: Hymerhabdia imperfecta Bertolino, Costa & Pansini, 2020