Aplysina aerophoba (Nardo, 1833)
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https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.281.4171 |
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https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A55AEE42-D8E5-D114-47AA-9C7BCEB04E75 |
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Aplysina aerophoba (Nardo, 1833) |
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Aplysina aerophoba (Nardo, 1833) Fig. 37
Aplysia aerophoba Nardo, 1833: 519 (preoccupied). Aplysina aerophoba Nardo, 1834: 714.
Description.
Body irregularly massive to digitate (up to 20-30 cm in diameter and height). Colour bright yellow in vivo and dramatically changing in a few minutes after collection or preservation (both alcohol and formalin, but also in dry conditions) into a very dark violet or most frequently pure black. Evident oscules on the top of sponge body or digitations. Sponge body surfaces seasonally covered by thin outgrowths (asexual propagules) up to 5 cm in length and 1 cm in diameter; outgrowths are lost by the mother-sponge as propagules at the end of summer. Consistency firm and fleshy. Surface smooth to slightly conulose, showing a fine (but evident) superficial fibrous network. Skeleton fragile, with fibres of a single dimensional class (80-150 µm) arranged in a regular three-dimensional scaffold. Fibre structure laminar with a large axial core (30-70 µm) inconspicuous in dry condition.
Habitat.
Cave, rocky/detritic/muddy bottom, lagoon, coralligenous community, Posidonia oceanica meadow. Bathymetric range from 10 cm to 100 m.
Mediterranean caves.
Meda Petita, Petita de la Vaca caves (Balearic Sea); Azzurra Cave (Central Tyrrhenian Sea); Croatian, Vrbnik-Krk, Stražica, Columbera caves (Northern Adriatic Sea); Agios Vasilios Cave (Aegean Sea) ( Pulitzer-Finali and Pronzato 1980; Bibiloni et al. 1984a; Arko-Pjevac et al. 2001; Novosel et al. 2002; Faresi et al. 2006; Pronzato and Manconi 2011; Gerovasileiou and Voultsiadou 2012).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
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