Hyrtios collectrix (Schulze, 1879)

Manconi, Renata, Cadeddu, Barbara, Ledda, Fabio & Pronzato, Roberto, 2013, An overview of the Mediterranean cave-dwelling horny sponges (Porifera, Demospongiae), ZooKeys 281, pp. 1-68 : 42-43

Hyrtios collectrix (Schulze, 1879) Fig. 35

Oligoceras collectrix Schulze, 1879b: 34.

Description.

Growth form sub-spherical or cake shaped, usually less than 10 cm in diameter. Colour black at the surface, greyish-yellow in the choanosome. Consistency very spongy in vivo, quite brittle in dry conditions. Surface conulose (conules 1-2 mm high, 1-2 mm apart). Oscules small, scattered and inconspicuous. Ectosome leathery, densely packed with highly heterogeneous detritus in nature, shape and size. Choanosome moderately cavernous and fleshy, with a ground-work of fibro-reticulations. Flagellate chambers rounded, 25-40 µm in diameter. Skeleton composed by very rare fibres completely filled by foreign materials, ascending primaries (100-350 µm in diameter), secondaries 50-100 µm, meshes very irregular in size, shape and outline; a large amount of variously composed and sized detritus is scattered in disorder in the mesohyl.

Habitat.

Cave, rocky/detritic bottom, coralligenous community, Posidonia oceanica meadow, lagoon. Bathymetric range 1-123 m.

Mediterranean caves.

Blava, Calamars caves (Balearic Sea); Farà Cave (Aegean Sea) ( Uriz et al. 1992; Pronzato and Manconi 2011; Gerovasileiou and Voultsiadou 2012).