Lycopodina lycopodium, (LEVINSEN, 1887)

Hestetun, Jon Thomassen, Tompkins-Macdonald, Gabrielle & Rapp, Hans Tore, 2017, A review of carnivorous sponges (Porifera: Cladorhizidae) from the Boreal North Atlantic and Arctic, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 181, pp. 1-69 : 46-47

LYCOPODINA LYCOPODIUM ( LEVINSEN, 1887)

( FIG. 36; TABLE 8)

Original description: Esperella cupressiformis var. lycopodium Levinsen, 1887: 365 .

Synonyms and citations: Esperia bihamatifera in part ( Hansen, 1885: 15), Esperella fristedtii in part Lambe, 1900a: 157, Asbestopluma lycopodium ( Lundbeck, 1905: 62; Hentschel, 1929: 934; Burton, 1934: 9, 33; Koltun, 1959: 75; Koltun, 1964: 151, 163), A. (A.) lycopodium ( van Soest et al., 2007: 130; Hestetun et al., 2015: 1313), L. lycopodium ( van Soest, 2016) .

Material examined: The Norwegian North-Atlantic Expedition, R/V ‘Johan Ruud’ 1979-1981, CARACOLE, GeoBio 2008, R/V ‘G.O. Sars’ 2008-155, MAREANO 2013 (see Supporting information).

Diagnosis: Erect Lycopodina composed of a short basal stem and elongated, cylindrical body with numerous, flexible filamentous processes issuing in all directions. Megascleres styles in the range of 250–1500 µm with shorter styles in basal part. Microscleres palmate anisochelae 11–17 µm and forceps spicules 26–55 µm.

Description: Erect, from 25 to 70 mm in length, and composed of a short stem 1–2 mm in diameter and up to 25 mm in length and an elongated, cylindrical, in some cases slightly fusiform body up to 50 mm in length tightly set with filaments in all directions. Connected to hard substrate with small, roughly conical basal plate. In some specimens, the lower part of the stem is covered with a rough, brown sheath. Filaments <1–8 mm in length, flexible, very fine, in some cases reduced to knobs, and project in all directions from the sponge giving it a brush-like appearance. In many specimens, the apex of the sponge coalesces into a grooved bud-like structure. Colour in situ white with a very slight greybrown tinge, in ethanol whitish beige ( Fig. 36A–C).

Skeleton : Stem composed of a central core made up of style bundles surrounded by looser tissue. The skeleton of each filament is made up of overlapping styles, and is anchored into the main stem ( Fig. 36D, E).