Sarcotragus foetidus Schmidt, 1862 Fig. 21

Sarcotragus foetidus Schmidt, 1862: 36.

Description.

Growth form irregularly massive to globular (up to 1 m in diameter, 50 cm in height); oscules large (0.5-1 cm in diameter) with a short collar, often grouped in a central depression at the top of the body. Consistency soft and strong. Colour is medium grey, but brown or black varieties have been also recorded (Vacelet 1959). Surface is smooth or covered by several epizoans. Conules are 2-3 mm high and 10-15 mm apart. Dry specimens become very hard and smaller (1/5) than living ones, also colour changes regularly into black. The skeleton does not differ from the other Mediterranean species belonging to the genus; the main skeleton composed by a reticulate network of primary (ca. 100-200 µm in diameter) and secondary (ca. 50-100 µm in diameter) fibres. Filaments abundant (1-3 µm in diameter).

Habitat.

Cave, rocky, detritic and muddy bottom, coralligenous community. Bathymetric range 3-400 m.

Mediterranean Caves.

Blava, Calamars, Meda Petita, Petita de la Vaca caves (Balearic Sea); Mago Cave (Central Tyrrhenian Sea); Taccio Vecchio 1 Cave-Lampedusa*, Tabarka Tunnel (Sicily Channel); Croatian caves (Northern Adriatic Sea); Viole Cave (Southern Adriatic Sea); Chios 213, Trypia Spilia, Farà, Agios Vasilios caves (Aegean Sea) (Pansini et al. 1977; Bibiloni et al. 1984a; Uriz et al. 1992; Voultsiadou-Koukoura and Koukouras 1993; Ben Mustapha et al. 2002; Pronzato and Manconi 2011; Bakran-Petricioli et al. 2012; Cadeddu 2012; Gerovasileiou and Voultsiadou 2012).