''Heteropia glomerosa'' is a
species of
calcareous sponge
The calcareous sponges of class Calcarea are members of the animal phylum Porifera, the cellular sponges. They are characterized by spicules made of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite or aragonite. While the spicules in most species hav ...
in the family
Heteropiidae
Heteropiidae is a family of sea sponges in the order Leucosolenida in the class Calcarea. In a 2012 paper, Oliver Voigt, Eilika Wülfing and Gert Wörheide (2012) confirmed that the family Heteropiidae is not monophyletic
In cladistics f ...
, and was first described as ''Leuconia glomerosa'' in 1873 by
James Scott Bowerbank.
[ ] In Australia, the species is found in the
IMCRA regions of the Central Western Shelf Transition, Central Western Shelf Province, Northwest Province, and the Central Western Transition (on the north-west
Western Australian coastline).
The dried type specimen came from Port Elizabeth and brought by Captain Charles Tyler to Bowerbank.
Description
Plate 4 from Bowerbank's description of ''Leuconia glomerosa''
# Fig.1. The type specimenm, natural size.
# Fig.2. One of the equiangular triradiate spicula of the dermal membrane, magnified 80 linear.
# Fig. 3. One of the largest-sized fusiformi-acerate dermal spicula, which has been fractured near its middle and cemented together again: magnified 80 linear.
# Fig. 4. A small-sized fusiformi-acerate dermal spiculum, magnified 80 linear.
# Fig. 5 & 6. Two of the triradiate spicula of the interstitial skeleton, magnified 80 linear.
References
Calcarea
Animals described in 1873
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