Cacospongia mollior Schmidt, 1862

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 : 38-39

Cacospongia mollior Schmidt, 1862 Fig. 31

Cacospongia mollior Schmidt, 1862: 27.

Description.

Growth form massive, lobate, 10-25 cm in diameter. Consistency soft and spongy, easy to tear off in vivo and friable when dry. Colour dark grey with whitish, bluish and magenta tinges. Surface smooth, regularly conulose (1-1.5 mm in height, 1-2 mm apart), forming regular characteristic "circular craters". Oscules scattered, small and single, upwards of 1 mm in diameter. Flagellate chambers spherical, 30-45 µm in diameter. Skeleton network reticulate with regular meshes (300-600 µm). Primary ascending fibres (80-120 µm) cored by mineral debris; secondaries abundant, free of inclusions, transparent and uncored. Skeleton soft when hydrated and brittle when dry.

Habitat.

Cave, coralligenous community, rocky/detritic/muddy bottom, Posidonia oceanica meadow, lagoon, epibiotic on Pinna nobilis . Bathymetric range 1-100 m.

Mediterranean caves.

Blava, Calamars, Misidacis caves (Balearic Sea); Bear, Endoume, Figuiers, Trèmies, Bagaud caves (Gulf of Lions); Azzurra, Mago caves (Central Tyrrhenian Sea); Bue Marino Cave (Southern Adriatic Sea); Ftelio Cave (Aegean Sea) ( Boury-Esnault 1971; Pouliquen 1972; Pulitzer-Finali and Pronzato 1976, 1980; Pansini et al. 1977; Pulitzer-Finali 1977; Uriz et al. 1992; Corriero et al. 2000; Harmelin et al. 2003; Martì et al. 2004; Pronzato and Manconi 2011; Gerovasileiou and Voultsiadou 2012).