Mycale (Carmia) fistulifera (Row, 1911)

Esperella fistulifera Row, 1911: 336, text-fig. 17.

Mycale fistulifera; Burton 1926: 80 (no description).

Summary description. Characteristic shape, with undivided thick basal portion up to 12 x 4.5 cm in size, upon which are erect oscular tubes of 10 cm high. Surface optically smooth. Preserved color is muddy yellowish grey, consistency lax and easily damaged. Skeleton with many loose scattered megascleres but also with some slender irregular tracts of 3–8 spicules in cross section. Mycalostyles, slender, straight, 250 x 2–2.5 µm, anisochelae not numerous, scattered throughout the sponge, not forming rosettes, in two (?) size categories, the larger of which measures 23 µm, sigmas not numerous, but more frequent than the anisochelae, 35–40 µm.

Distribution. Suez, northern Red Sea, shallow depth.