External characters
A massive, subspherical or pyriform sponge with a smooth surface. Large oscules, 1-2 mm in diameter, are surrounded by an elevated margin. Subcortical cavities often visible. The consistency is compact, firm, but friable.
Colour
Yellow in the living stale, white in alcohol.
Skeletal Characters
Equiangular triactines of vorious sizes, lying tangentially in the cortex and irregularly scallered throughout the choanosome. A variable number of tetractines surround the larger exhalant conals. Small triactines: aclines
100-180µm x 12-20 µm, bend in the spicules surrounding the oscular margin. Large triactines, located only in the corticol skeleton: conical aclines up 10
600 µm x 50 µm
Tetractines: basal aclines 60-120 µm x 8-12 µm, apical actine thinner.
Dimensions
Maximum diameter approximately 10 cm
Ecology and habitat
On the outer reef slope, on hard substrate.
Distribution
Indo-Pacific.
In French Polynesia: Society, Tuamotu, Marquesas islands
J Hooper (2014). QM1402 Leucetta chagosensis Dendy, 1913. 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).
