Microtylostylifer sp - (0785) - Marquises - Nuku Hiva

Microtylostylifer sp. (OTU QM0785) OTU QM0785

Desmacellida Desmacellidae

External characters

massive.

Colour

beige, covered with sediment, in ethanol.

Skeletal Characters

Oscules not apparent in ethanol.
Texture brittle, relatively fragile, easily broken.
Surface_Ornamentation covered with sediment, specimen encrusted by unidentified haplosclerid.
Ectosomal_Skeleton tangential layer of small mycalostyles; plumose tracts ascend to support ectosome.
Choanosomal_Skeleton megascleres in thick tracts; semi-plumose reticulation; many spicules in dense, confused arrangement.
Megascleres mycalostyles: 2 size classes.
Microscleres nil.
Mudmap_Author P Sutcliffe
Mudmap_Editor Kathryn Hall

Distribution

In French Polynesia: Marquesas islands.

Ecology and habitat

In a bay, on sandy slope.

P Sutcliffe (2014). QM0785 Microtylostylifer sp. (OTU QM0785) . In: Hall, K.A. & Hooper, J.N.A. (2014) SpongeMaps: an online community for taxonomy and identification of sponges. (Available at http://www.spongemaps.org).