Polymastia umbraculum

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

Polymastia umbraculum is a species of demosponge belonging to the family Polymastiidae. It is only known from rocky subtidal habitats around Kawau Island off North Island, New Zealand.

This is a thickly encrusting sponge with a very firm texture, growing in loosely attached patches up to 7 cm across. The granular outer layer is brilliant yellow-orange with a rather darker interior carrying many symbiont foraminifera. It is often infested with the parasitic amphipod Polycheria antarctica.

[edit] 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. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 31: 367–402.