Spongia officinalis Linnaeus, 1759

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 : 34-35

Spongia officinalis Linnaeus, 1759 Fig. 28

Spongia officinalis Linnaeus, 1759: 1348 (partim).

Description.

Growth form massive-lobate, surface finely conulose, single oscules scattered or at the apex of lobes, pre-oscular cavities well evident. Colour in vivo from light grey to black. Ectosomal skeleton as apices of primary fibres joining secondary fibres to form the conical reticulum which supports the conules. Choanosomal skeleton: network dense with irregular polygonal meshes of secondaries joining to form ascending primaries. Primary fibres (50-100 µm in diameter) typically twisted with ornamentations as parallel ridges along the main fibre axis mainly developed and evident towards the surface, cored with sand grains and spicules. Secondaries (20-35 µm in diameter) with ornamentations as parallel ridges along the main fibre axis, twisted and characterised by concentric layers of compact spongin surrounding the compact axial core without inclusions.

Habitat.

Cave, coralligenous community, rocky/detritic/muddy/sandy bottom, lagoon, coralligenous community, Posidonia oceanica meadow. Bathymetric range 1-70 m.

Mediterranean caves.

Meda Petita, Petita de la Vaca caves (Balearic Sea); Falco*, Bisbe* caves (Sardinian Sea); Endoume, Figuiers, Trèmies, Niolon, Bagaud caves (Gulf of Lions); Bergeggi, Eastern-Bonassola, Zoagli-Chiavari caves (Ligurian Sea); Azzurra, Isolotto, Mago, Misteri, Tuffo Tuffo caves (Central Tyrrhenian Sea); Taccio Vecchio 1 Cave-Lampedusa*, Cani Islands Tunnel (Sicily Channel); Leuca caves (Ionian Sea); Croatian, Vrbnik-Krk caves (Northern Adriatic Sea); Pagliai, Regina caves (Southern Adriatic Sea) ( Laborel and Vacelet 1958; Sarà 1959, 1964a; Vacelet 1959; Labate 1965; Rützler 1966; Pouliquen 1972; Pulitzer-Finali and Pronzato 1976, 1980; Cinelli et al. 1977; Pansini et al. 1977; Pulitzer-Finali 1977; Bibiloni et al. 1984a, b; Bianchi et al. 1986; Arko-Pjevac et al. 2001; Ben Mustapha et al. 2002; Harmelin et al. 2003; Manconi et al. 2011; Pronzato and Manconi 2011; Bakran-Petricioli et al. 2012; Cadeddu 2012).