Noevus, Carter, 1876

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 : 10

Chelonaplysilla noevus (Carter, 1876) Fig. 4

Aplysina noevus Carter, 1876: 229.

Description.

Growth form encrusting (less than 2 mm in height). Surface conulose, ornamented by a network of rounded meshes (200-300 µm in diameter) loaded of inclusions; inside the meshes surface is smooth and perforated by small apertures (15-40 µm in diameter). Colour from grey to violet ( Vacelet 1959, 1969). Dendritic modules (tree-shaped) of the skeleton with fibres apically branched (80 µm in diameter at their base, 20 µm at the apical branch level).

Habitat.

Cave, coralligenous community, rocky bottom. On small pebbles or epibiotic on Microcosmus vulgaris Heller, 1877, Corallium rubrum (L., 1759) and Sarcotragus foetidus . Bathymetric range 1-150 m.

Mediterranean caves.

Blava, Calamars, Misidacis caves (Balearic Sea); Endoume, Figuier, Trèmies caves (Gulf of Lions) ( Pouliquen 1972; Uriz et al. 1992; Martì et al. 2004; Pronzato and Manconi 2011).