External characters
Erect, globular, cylindrical digit, tapering towards base and apex, 62mm long, 24mm diameter at base, 32mm widest diameter, attached directly to substrate (with embedded detritus in basal end), without stalk or other processes.
Colour
Pale orange alive (Munsell 7.5YR 8/8), olive-brown in ethanol.
Skeletal Characters
| Oscules | Massive, ranging up to a cm in diameter, with raised and expanded membranous lip resembling a "sucker", and in some specimens appearing to cover the entire surface in situ; generally collapsing in air and visible only as small conules. |
| Texture | Texture rubbery, compressible. |
| Surface_Ornamentation | Evenly distributed, rounded Cliona-like papillae, up to 2.5mm diameter, only raised slightly above surface, each with a terminal apical oscule (closed when exposed to air or preserved, 1.0-1.5mm diameter). Surface with distinct (non-detachable) dermis, more darkly pigmented than choanosomal skeleton. |
| Ectosomal_Skeleton | Heavy collagenous ectosomal layer, 100-250µm wide, darkly pigmented, containing scattered megascleres and microscleres, predominantly paratangential to the surface. Around oscules spicules ordered into diverging rays, presumably supporting surface papillae and providing support for oscule contractile mechanism. |
| Choanosomal_Skeleton | Skeleton plumose-halichondrioid, with predominantly ascending skeletal tracts, meandering and rejoining throughout skeleton; fibre meshes irregular, elliptical-oval, more cavernous in interior than peripheral skeleton; no axial compression and no differentiation between axial and extra-axial skeletons; spongin fibres only lightly invested with spongin, 30-90µm diameter, with poorly differentiated primary and secondary elements; fibres fully cored with megascleres, dispersed in plumose-diverging tracts. Mesohyl contains heavy collagen and abundant loose megascleres and microscleres. Choanocyte chambers 20-85µm diameter. |
| Megascleres | Vestigial megascleres, predominantly strongyles, occasionally styloid or strongyloxeas, straight, slender, with symmetrical, rounded ends, or slightly tapering hastate points (238-(298.2)-318 x 2.5-(3.3)-4.5). |
| Microscleres | Acanthoxeas long, slender, usually straight, occasionally asymmetrical, evenly spined, granular spination, with tapering, sharply pointed ends (106-(129.3)-173 x 2.5-(2.9)-3.5). Two size categories of raphides present, both straight, thin, tapering to sharp points. |
| Mudmap_Author | John Hooper |
| Mudmap_Editor | K Hall |
Distribution
In French Polynesia: Marquesas Islands
In Pacific Ocean: Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Guam
Ecology and habitat
On rocky wall / slope
John Hooper (2014). QM1086 Higginsia anfractuosa Hooper & Lévi, 1993. 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).
