Species Overview

Halichondria (Halichondria) bowerbanki Burton, 1930

SPONGE:

Shape: Encrusting with branches often flattened lobes
Color_Alive: Yellow-tan; gold; or olive-brown

HABITAT:

Benthic Region: Bays and Harbors
Distribution: Central California

Skeleton:

Composition: Silicate
Architecture: Typical halichondriid structure

Oscula:

Visible: Frequently NOT obvious
Distribution: scattered

Ectosome:

Architecture: irregular and indistinct meshwork formed of loose bundles of spicules and of individual spicules mixed with occasional tracts

Megasclere:

Shape: Oxeas
Length: 170 -- 300 µ
Width: 5.0 -- 12.0 µ

Surface:

Apparence: Translucent or nearly so

Choanosome:

Color: orange-yellow

Ectosome:

Color: Ectosome light orange-yellow
Architecture: with widly spaced more or less parallel multispicular tracts