Description

Description The sponge consists of a single tube or clusters of up to 19 tubes, with a maximum length of 18.5 by 4.5 cm in diameter, and a large apical pseudoscule with 2.5 cm in diameter. The surface is characterized by irregular grooves (caliciform or meandriform) of variable depth. Specimens are finely conulose, small digitiform processes (ca. 0.5 cm in diameter) being observed in some specimens, projecting themselves from the rim of the pseudoscule. The colour is bright yellow in vivo, turning beige, purple or dark brown after preservation in alcohol. Consistency varies from hard to soft. Skeleton: Choanosome with a delicate and irregular network of spongin fibers with amber colour and thickness of 7 – 196 Μm (average 89 Μm). They have rather irregular (eccentric) black pith with thickness 7 – 37 Μm (average 16 Μm).

Common Names

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Porifera

Class: Demospongiae

Order: Verongiida

Family: Aplysinidae

Genus: Aplysina

Species: Aplysina lacunosa (Lamarck, 1814)