Aplysina cavernicola (Vacelet, 1959)

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 : 45

Aplysina cavernicola (Vacelet, 1959) Fig. 38

Verongia cavernicola Vacelet, 1959: 88.

Description.

Body shape constantly digitate (1-2 cm in diameter and 5-10 cm in height); each digitation bearing one oscule (1-3 mm) at the center of an evident apical depression. Digitations regularly arranged on a basal encrusting plate attending over 50 cm in diameter. Thin outgrowths extremely rare. Colour yellow, a little bit paler than that of Aplysina aerophoba . Colour tone changes after death, to medium violet in preserved specimens, never reaching very dark or black tonalities.

Habitat.

Cave, coralligenous community, rocky/detritic bottom. Typically sciophilous. Bathymetric range 1-110 m.

Mediterranean Caves.

Blava, Calamars, Meda Petita, Petita de la Vaca, Misidacis caves (Balearic Sea); Bear, Troc, Figuier, Trèmies, Bagaud caves (Gulf of Lions); Gallinara, Bergeggi, Tinetto caves (Ligurian Sea); Bonifacio, Tuffo Tuffo caves (Central Tyrrhenian Sea); Croatian, Vrbnik-Krk, Stražica, Columbera caves (Northern Adriatic Sea); Pagliai (Southern Adriatic Sea) ( Vacelet 1961b; Rützler 1966; Boury-Esnault 1971; Pouliquen 1972; Bibiloni et al. 1984b; Uriz et al. 1992; Bianchi and Morri 1994; Arko-Pjevac et al. 2001; Novosel et al. 2002; Harmelin et al. 2003; Faresi et al. 2006; Tunesi et al. 2008; Pronzato and Manconi 2011; Bakran-Petricioli et al. 2012).