Aplysina aerophoba (Nardo, 1833)

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 : 44-45

Aplysina aerophoba (Nardo, 1833) Fig. 37

Aplysia aerophoba Nardo, 1833: 519 (preoccupied). Aplysina aerophoba Nardo, 1834: 714.

Description.

Body irregularly massive to digitate (up to 20-30 cm in diameter and height). Colour bright yellow in vivo and dramatically changing in a few minutes after collection or preservation (both alcohol and formalin, but also in dry conditions) into a very dark violet or most frequently pure black. Evident oscules on the top of sponge body or digitations. Sponge body surfaces seasonally covered by thin outgrowths (asexual propagules) up to 5 cm in length and 1 cm in diameter; outgrowths are lost by the mother-sponge as propagules at the end of summer. Consistency firm and fleshy. Surface smooth to slightly conulose, showing a fine (but evident) superficial fibrous network. Skeleton fragile, with fibres of a single dimensional class (80-150 µm) arranged in a regular three-dimensional scaffold. Fibre structure laminar with a large axial core (30-70 µm) inconspicuous in dry condition.

Habitat.

Cave, rocky/detritic/muddy bottom, lagoon, coralligenous community, Posidonia oceanica meadow. Bathymetric range from 10 cm to 100 m.

Mediterranean caves.

Meda Petita, Petita de la Vaca caves (Balearic Sea); Azzurra Cave (Central Tyrrhenian Sea); Croatian, Vrbnik-Krk, Stražica, Columbera caves (Northern Adriatic Sea); Agios Vasilios Cave (Aegean Sea) ( Pulitzer-Finali and Pronzato 1980; Bibiloni et al. 1984a; Arko-Pjevac et al. 2001; Novosel et al. 2002; Faresi et al. 2006; Pronzato and Manconi 2011; Gerovasileiou and Voultsiadou 2012).