Halichondrie mie de pain

Halichondria (Halichondria) panicea (Pallas, 1766)

Description:

Bread-crumb sponge is a very common species in the intertidal zone, varying from thin sheets to encrusting form. This sponge is with typical volcano-shaped oscular chimneys. Basically light orange-yellow or pale yellowish green. However, intertidal specimen may be greyish, presumably do to microsymbiomts. Distinctive smell, like freshly deposited kelp on the strandline. This smell, once learned, is of very great help in determining difficult cases (Picton et al., 2011, van Soest et al., 2000).

Habitat:

This species occurs in the intertidal region as well as in the sublittoral region down to more to -500 m. It is the commonest intertidal sponge of the Eastern Atlantic (van Soest et al., 2000) because it can be found into the upper mediolittoral in underwater habitat. However, Vethaak et al. (1982) established that its tolerance towards siltation is lower than its sympatric sister species H. bowerbanki, preferring somewhat more exposed habitat (Vethaak et al., 1982).

Distribution:

Northern Atlantic, both along the European coast and those of America. Latitudaly, it occurs from Arctic Ocean to Mediterranean sea (Picton et al., 2011, van Soest et al., 2000).

Spicules:

Megascleres of slightly curved, slender, oxea only; can vary between 124 to 482 µm long. There are no microscleres (van Soest et al., 2000).

References:

Hayward, P. J. & Ryland, J. S., (2003) Handbook of the Marine Fauna of North-West Europe, Oxford University Press, ed. 6e, pp.800.

Picton, B. E., Morrow, C. C. & van Soest, R. W. B., (2011) in Sponges of Britain and Ireland. (http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/sponge_guide/sponges.asp?item=C3590, 25.08.2011.

van Soest, R. W. M., Picton, B. E. & Morrow, C., (2000) Sponges of the North East Atlantic, in World Biodiversity Database CD-ROM Series, Windows/Mac version 1.0. ( ETI, University of Amsterdam: Amsterdam).

Vethaak, A. D., Cronie, R. J. A. & van Soest, R. W. M., (1982) Ecology and distribution of two sympatric, closely related sponge species, Halichondria panicea (Pallas, 1766) and H. bowerbanki Burton, 1930 (Porifera, Demospongiae), with remarks on their speciation, Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde, 52, (2), pp. 82-102.