Species Overview

Neopetrosia vanilla (de Laubenfels, 1930).

SPONGE:

Shape: Encrusting
Size_thickness: to 15 mm
Consistency: Stony hard
Color_Alive: White or pale yellowish drab or buff or tan or dull orange-brown

HABITAT:

Benthic Region: Marine: Low intertidal
Distribution: Central California.

Skeleton:

Composition: Silicate
Architecture: a confused reticulation with vertical multispicular tracts sometimes present especially near surface. Spicules densely packed

Surface:

Texture: Superficially smooth

Oscula:

Shape: round
Rims: often with raised rim
Diameter: 1.0 -- 2.0 mm
Distribution: 1 cm apart

Ectosome:

Architecture: Ectosomal skeleton indistinct.

Choanosome:

Architecture: a confused reticulation with vertical multispicular tracts sometimes present especially near surface. Spicules densely packed

Megasclere:

Shape: Oxeas -with a bend at each end.
Length: 150 - -160 µ
Width: 11--12 µ