Hexadella topsenti Reveillaud, Allewaert, Perez, Vacelet, Banaigs and Vanreusel, 2012 Fig. 39

Hexadella topsenti Reveillaud, Allewaert, Pérez, Vacelet, Banaigs and Vanreusel, 2012: 242.

Description.

Growth form encrusting, lobate and thin. Colour bright to dark pink, to purple in vivo (brighter and deeper pink than Hexadella racovitzai), changing to brownish after releasing of a yellow fluid in ethanol. Surface smooth with subdermal canals, and wrinkled by small evident collagenous reinforcements irregularly crossing and converging towards small, tiny conules; foreign inclusions present. Inhalant apertures inconspicuous; oscules small, chimney-like, abundant, scattered. Ectosome with some bundles of collagen fibrils and a developed lacunar system. Spherulous cells in large clusters with large inclusions containing microgranules and microgranular cells. Choanocyte chambers (35 × 20 µm in diameter), choanocytes larger than in Hexadella racovitzai . Rod-shaped bacteria in the mesohyl. Low-moderate natural toxicity.

Habitat.

Coralligenous cliff, cave.

Mediterranean caves.

Corail Cave (Gulf of Lions) (Reveillaud et al. 2012).

Remarks.

See the original description for more details and figures (Reveillaud et al. 2012).