Auletta grantioides

Lévi and Vacelet, 1958

Species Overview

Auletta grantioides Lévi and Vacelet, 1958 is a yellow-ochre stalked sac-shaped sponge known only from deep water off the coast of Brittanny, NW France. So far it has been recorded only once.

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Yellow-ochre.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: Flattened sac, on a short peduncle, looking rather like Grantia compressa . No further data.
Spicules: Styles, long, somewhat flexuous, with blunt or irregular point: 1600-2400 x 15 µm; sinuous strongyles: 1000-1100 x 7-9 µm.
Skeleton: The wall of the sac contains longitudinal spicule tracts running parallel from top to holdfast. There are also transverse fascicles.
Ecology: Deep-water: recorded from 108 m.
Distribution: Off the coast of Bretagne, NW France.
Etymology: The name refers to the superficial similarity to sponges of the genus Grantia .
Type specimen information: Type is in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.

Remarks

The species differs from the congeneric Auletta sycinularia described from the Azores region in the size of the megascleres, which are only 150-600 µm in sycinularia . Also, that species forms a branching group of tubes rather than a single one.
Source: Lévi and Vacelet, 1958.