Schmidt, 1870
Species Overview
Tedania suctoria Schmidt, 1870 is a yellowish massive species, occasionally somewhat branching. The surface is covered in low papillae. It is a northern deep water species.
Taxonomic Description
Colour: Yellow or yellowish white in alcohol.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: (Tedania suctoria Ldbck) (Tedania suctoria Ldbck2) Massively encrusting, more or less roundish and lumpy; it may form lobes and branches, compressed, club-shaped. Size up to 9 cm in length, up to 3 cm in thickness. Surface is densely covered with conical papillae of up to 4 mm in length (Tedania suctoria papillas). Consistency rather firm, somewhat elastic.
Spicules: (Tedania suctoria spics) Megascleres : ectosomal tylotes, entirely smooth including the tyles: 250-470 x 3-6 µm; choanosomal styles, smooth, somewhat curved: 300-680 x 7-14 µm.
Microscleres : Onychaetes, inequiended, spined, possibly in two size categories: 55-500 µm.
Skeleton: Ectosomal : bundles of tylotes reach the surface membrane and fan out. Choanosomal : an irregular isotropic reticulation of spicule bundles and individual spicules, bound at the nodes by some spongin.
Ecology: 10-200 m
Distribution: Iceland, Norway, Faroes, Azores, Arctic.
Etymology: Suctor (Latin) = sucking device, presumably referring to the conical papillae.
Type specimen information: The type is in the Copenhagen Museum, with a type slide in the Natural History Museum (BMNH 1870:5:3:104).
Remarks
The only other Tedania species described from our area is T . anhelans . It is a southern shallow water species with styles and onychaetes about half the size of those of the present species. The tylotes of T . anhelans have microspined ends. There are no surface papillae in T . anhelans .
Solórzano (in litteris) reports a further Tedania from NW Spain with characters intermediate between T . anhelans and T . suctoria : the tylotes have smooth tyles, but there are no papillae at the surface. This form awaits formal description.
Source: Lundbeck, 1910.