Spongia zimocca Schmidt, 1862

Manconi, Renata, Cadeddu, Barbara, Ledda, Fabio & Pronzato, Roberto, 2013, An overview of the Mediterranean cave-dwelling horny sponges (Porifera, Demospongiae), ZooKeys 281, pp. 1-68 : 37-38

Spongia zimocca Schmidt, 1862 Fig. 30

Spongia zimocca Schmidt, 1862: 23.

Description.

Massive to globular growth form, small size, usually not over 15 cm in diameter. Surface softly hairy, densely conulose with very long conules (2-3 mm high and less than 1 mm apart) sometimes a single conule supported by 2-3 converging primary fibres. Oscules not evident and located in small deep superficial depressions. Colour in vivo never reported. Consistency very soft, elastic and strong. Skeleton as a network of regular meshes (100-200 µm) with primary fibres bearing very rare inclusions (particularly fragments of spicules) and secondaries completely free of inclusions; primary fibres typically formed by anastomosing secondaries in fascicules (50-80 µm in diameter).

Habitat.

Cave, rocky bottom, coralligenous community. Bathymetric range 1-40 m. Here we report a new record from the Bisbe Cave in the NW-Sardinian karst.

Mediterranean caves.

Bisbe* Cave (Sardinian Sea); Salakta Caves (Sicily Channel) ( Ben Mustapha et al. 2003; Manconi et al. 2011; Pronzato and Manconi 2011; Cadeddu 2012).

Remarks.

It is a problematic species, indeed the Schmidt’s type specimen (naked skeleton, Cyprus, no further data), preserved in the Graz Museum (LMJG 15470/0) is clearly a Spongia officinalis . Moreover many authors, in various papers, described this species differently, contributing to determine its problematic taxonomic status. In contrast with that, the commercial “Zimoccas” really belong to a species distinctly different from the other specieshitherto ascribed tothe genus Spongia as reported also by Schmidt (1862), Schulze (1879a) and de Laubenfels (1948). As a consequence the Graz Museum type needs to be carefully studied. The present description is based on the specimens TRG Ker 346, DTRG Ker 347, Jerba-El-Jem (Tunisia), 3-4 m, soft bottom, August 2006. Many traders consider “Zimocca” as the best commercial Mediterranean sponge.