External characters
subspherical, stalked, fig-shaped; stalk tapered, widest at base; with strong basal attachment.
Colour
interior cream, exterior dark cream to brown tinged with lilac-pink near oscules in ethanol.
Skeletal Characters
| Oscules | on apical surface only, large, discrete, round, 4–5 mm (d), spaced at least 5 mm apart, but others up to 40 mm apart. |
| Texture | firm, resists tearing but tearable, rubbery, compressible, slowly resilient. |
| Surface_Ornamentation | microconulose, fine sandpapery texture. |
| Ectosomal_Skeleton | densely pigmented; conules lifted by fibres which protrude surface; ectosome delimited by closer spacing of secondary fibres. |
| Choanosomal_Skeleton | fibrous; fibres differentiated into primary, secondary and tertiary fibres; reticulation very regular, orthogonal; primary fibres strongly laminated, fasciculated in places, especially near ectosome; secondary and tertiary fibres fine; secondary fibres run perpendicular to primaries, not laminated; tertiary fibres perpendicular and diagonal to primaries and secondaries, not laminated; mesohyl clear, largely free of detritus, occasional incorporation of sand grains, pigment less dense than in ectosome. |
| Megascleres | nil. |
| Microscleres | nil. |
| Mudmap_Author | Kathryn Hall |
| Mudmap_Editor | K Hall |
Distribution
In French Polynesia: Gambier and Society islands
Ecology and habitat
Gambier: in the lagoon, on pinnacles.
Society: on the rim of the pass
Kathryn Hall (2012). QM4763 Spongia (spongia) sp. 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).
