|PORIFERA : POECILOSCLERIDA : Acarnidae||SPONGES|
Description: This sponge may grow as a thin sheet or cushion, developing into ascending finger-like growths. The surface is irregular, with raised areas that are denser in appearance supported by the underlying skeleton, with a transparent surface membrane between these ridges. The colour is off-white, grey, through bright yellow to bright orange, blackening on contact with air and on preservation.
Habitat: On circalittoral bedrock and boulders under a wide range of wave exposures and current regimes. Also common on Terebratulina retusa a brachiopod that occurs sublittorally in sheltered sea lochs and in deep water on open coasts.
Distribution: Common and widespread in the English Channel, Ireland and W. Scotland.
Similar Species: Large specimens may superficially resemble Myxilla incrustans or Myxilla rosacea, however the blackening on death is very noticeable.
Key Identification Features:
Distribution Map from NBN: Interactive map : National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.
WoRMS: Species record : World Register of Marine Species.
|Picton, B.E. & Morrow, C.C. (2016). Iophonopsis nigricans (Bowerbank, 1858). [In] Encyclopedia of Marine Life of Britain and Ireland. |
http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/species.asp?item=C6780 Accessed on 2018-09-21
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