Polymastia echinus

Polymastia echinus is a species of sea sponge belonging to the family Polymastiidae. It is only known from shallow subtidal habitats off Te Hāwere-a-Maki / Goat Island in the north of the North Island of New Zealand.

Polymastia echinus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Demospongiae
Order: Polymastiida
Family: Polymastiidae
Genus: Polymastia
Species:
P. echinus
Binomial name
Polymastia echinus
Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, 1997

This is an encrusting sponge with an extraordinary appearance. The sponge is always largely covered in sand, grit and fragments of shells apart from smooth, cylindrical, peach-coloured papillae up to 15 mm in height which are always free of such material. The specific name refers to this rather hedgehog-like appearance.

References

    • Michelle Kelly-Borges & Patricia R. Bergquist (1997). "Revision of Southwest Pacific Polymastiidae (Porifera: Demospongiae: Hadromerida) with descriptions of new species of Polymastia Bowerbank, Tylexocladus Topsent, and Acanthopolymastia gen. nov. from New Zealand and the Norfolk Ridge, New Caledonia" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research. 31 (3): 367–402. doi:10.1080/00288330.1997.9516772.


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