Eurypon simplex

(Bowerbank, 1874)

Species Overview

Eurypon simplex (Bowerbank, 1874) is a thinly encrusting hispid sponge. It is known from several localities off the coasts of Europe, but invariably from deeper water.

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Whitish in alcohol, pale yellow in dried condition, possibly red alive.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: Thin encrustation on shells, stones and pebbles, up to 0.4 mm in thickness. Surface hispid due to projecting spicules. Meandering subdermal canals visible, but no apparent oscules.
Spicules: Tylostyles, very stout and long, with prominent heads, with often a ring swelling just beneath it: up to at least 3600 x 43 µm; some of the tylostyles are deformed into shorter "tylotes"; styles, often arranged in bundles of 3-6, smooth: 480 x 3-4 µm; acanthostyles, entirely spined: 108-180 x 8-10 µm.
Skeleton: Long tylostyles are erect on the substrate, points outward, protruding beyond the ectosome; bundles of slim styles scattered throughout the sponge.
Ecology: On pebbles, at 60-260 m.
Distribution: Roscoff, Faroes.
Type specimen information: The type is in the Natural History Museum, London.

Remarks

Eurypon lacazei shares the extremely long tylostyles with the present species, but they differ in the form of the auxiliary spicules: smooth oxeas in E . lacazei , smooth styles in E . simplex .
Source: Brøndsted, 1932.