Hexadella topsenti Reveillaud, Allewaert, Perez , Vacelet, Banaigs and Vanreusel, 2012

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 : 47

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).