Genus Aulospongus Norman, 1878

Synonymy. For synonymy see Hooper (2002).

Definition. Raspailiidae with at least two size classes of rhabdostyles of similar geometry, the larger (smooth or partially spined) core spongin fibres, and the smaller (partially spined) echinate fibres although neither are localized to any region of the skeleton; choanosomal skeletal structure is predominantly plumose, with spicules and fibres amalgamated into bulbous tracts (‘fibre-bundles’), more-or-less compacted in the axial skeleton, becoming increasingly plumose as they ascend to the periphery, eventually producing a shaggy, compartmentalised or conulose surface; axial and extra-axial skeletons undifferentiated apart from greater amalgamation of fibre-bundles in the axis (Hooper et al. 2008). Type species. Haliphysema tubulatus Bowerbank, 1873 (by original designation).