| Common name: |
Stinker sponge |
| Growth Form: |
Highly variable, from thick encrusting, to massive, lobate or irregularly branching, up to 50 cm across. |
| Surface: |
Conules up to 3 mm high and 5-7 mm apart; rarely reduced. |
| Color: |
Brown, red-brown, or grey externally; tan internally. Oscules usually darker. |
| Consistency: |
Rubbery, very difficult to cut. |
| Oscules: |
Irregularly scattered, 0.3-1.0 cm across, usually flush but sometimes slightly elevated or on small conical projections. Marginal membrane usually contrasts with the surrounding surface color, most commonly dark brown. |
| Skeletal components (Spicules, fibers): |
No spicules. Irregular fiber meshwork; some fibers compactly filled with sand and foreign spicules (60-200 µm wide) and others naked (50-100 µm wide). Thin spongin filaments (2-7 μm wide) with knobbed heads (2-10 μm wide) fill in between the fibers. |
| Skeletal architecture: |
No exterior skeletal specialization, but foreign material forms a surface reticulation leaving apertures 60-190 μm across. Interior fibers form ascending bundles (fibrofascicles) 250-520 μm wide with irregular meshes 50-160 μm (minimum) to 80-400 μm (maximum) across. |
| Ecology: |
Massive forms are most common on reefs, branching and more lobate forms on quieter shallow inshore hard substrates, sediment and seagrass beds. As the name suggests, and like other species of Ircinia, this sponge has a strong, sulfurous, pungent smell when removed from the water. |
| Distribution: |
South Florida and throughout the Caribbean in as little as 1 m depth. |
| Notes: |
Specimens fit well with the literature descriptions. |
| References: |
van Soest (1978), Zea (1987), de C Cook & Bergquist (in Hooper & van Soest 2002). |
| Similar species: |
Ircinia strobilina |
|
