| Common Name(s): |
Pink vase sponge |
| Growth Form: |
Vase-, tube- or cup-shaped, broadening upward from the base and usually somewhat compressed rather than round in cross section; up to 50 cm tall and wide, but usually much less; rarely fan-shaped. Small specimens may be globular or tubular. Typically a single tube; rarely 2-3. |
| Surface: |
Coarsely porous; smooth to extremely conulose or spiny, though the spines are soft; conules or spines up to 6 mm tall. |
| Color: |
Pale purplish pink through light bluish to grayish green or gray. |
| Consistency: |
Compressible, tough, but easy to cut. |
| Exudate: |
None. |
| Oscules: |
Small, round, inside the vase or cup. The apical opening has a characteristic fringe of soft spines usually connected by a transparent membrane, but is not a true oscule. |
| Skeletal Components (Spicules, Fibers): |
Stout and slender, slightly bent rods with two gradually tapering or abruptly pointed ends (oxea), ~120-250 x 1-19 μm. Small thin C-shapes (sigma) 14-22 μm long, which may be absent. |
| Skeletal Architecture: |
Polygonal surface meshwork of spongin fibers is often incomplete or poorly developed. Interior fiber meshwork arranged as irregularly ascending and diverging bundles of fibers usually densely packed with spicules (fibrofascicles, up to 400 μm across), accompanied by individual spicule-packed fibers, some running toward the surface and others interconnecting the fiber bundles. Inner cup wall with distinct longitudinal fiber bundles. |
| Ecology: |
On reefs and hard bottoms. Frequently infested with the brown colonial anemone Parazoanthus parasiticus. |
| Distribution: |
Gulf of Mexico, South Florida and throughout the Caribbean. |
| Notes: |
Callyspongia plicifera differs in having meandering ridges and grooves on the outer surface instead of conules or spines. Callyspongia vaginalis is not as coarsely porous, lacks the apical fringe and occurs as multiple (typically >3) tubes. |
| References: |
van Soest (1980), Zea (1987). |
| Similar species: |
Callyspongia plicifera |
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