Carter, 1874b

Species Overview

Melonanchora elliptica Carter (1874b) is a yellowish bladder-like deep-water sponge provided with chracteristic short flattened tubercles. It has very characteristic microscleres called melonchelas or sphaerancoras (microscopic examination).

Taxonomic Description

Colour: Yellowish white or whitish grey.
Shape, size, surface and consistency: Globular, with many truncated-flattened surface tubercles. Size up to more than 10 cm in diameter. Surface between tubercles smooth. Pores and oscules are at the flattened end of the tubercles. Consistency of ectosome parchment-like, firm, of interior mass crumbly, fragile.
Spicules: (Melonanchora elliptica spics) Megascleres: Ectosomal tylotes, smooth, slightly anisotylote, fusiform, with smooth heads: 410-620 x 15 µm; choanosomal styles, smooth, curved: 680-860 x 15 µm. Microscleres: Spatuliferous anchorate chelae in two size classes: 21-28 µm and 47-75 µm; sphaerancoras (or melonchelas melonancora): 54-68 µm.
Skeleton: Ectosomal skeleton a feltwork of tangentially arranged tylotes. Choanosomal skeleton an irregular reticulation of multispicular tracts of styles.
Ecology: 50-1300 m
Distribution: Norway, Sweden, Faroes; Azores, Cape Verde Islands; also recorded from the West Indies but that needs confirmation.
Etymology: The name refers to the elliptical sphaerancoras.
Type specimen information: Natural History Museum, London: BMNH 1882:7:28:54.

Remarks

This is an easily recognizable sponge. A second species of Melonanchora, viz. M. emphysema (Schmidt, 1875) occurs sympatrically, but is not treated here because it is only known from 180 m downwards. It differs from the present species in the absence of styles.
Source: Arndt, 1935

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Porifera
Class Demospongiae
Order Poecilosclerida
Suborder Myxillina
Family Myxillidae
Genus Melonanchora
Species Melonanchora elliptica

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Melonanchora elliptica Carter, 1874

Scientific synonyms and common names

Melonanchora elliptica n.sp. Carter, 1874b: 212, pl. XIII figs. 6-12, pl. XV fig. 35; Arnesen, 1903: 16, pl. II fig. 4, pl. V fig.4; Arndt, 1913: 114; Burton, 1930a: 492; Burton, 1931: 4; Brøndsted, 1932: 13; Alander, 1935: 5; Arndt, 1935: 71, fig. 141.

Alander, H., 1935. Additions to the Swedish sponge-fauna. Arkiv för Zoologi, 28B (5): 1-6.

Arndt, W., 1913. Zoologische Ergebnisse der ersten Lehr-Expedition der P. Schottländerschen Jubiläums-Stiftung. Jahresber. Schles. Ges. vaterl. Cultur: 110-136.

Arndt, W., 1935. Porifera. Tierwelt Nord.-Ostsee, IIIa: 1-140, figs. 1-239.

Arnesen, E., 1903. Spongien von der norwegischen Küste, Monaxonida: Halichondrina. Bergens Mus. Årbok, 1903 (1): 1-30, pls. I-VII.

Brøndsted, H.V., 1932. Marine Spongia. The Zoology of the Faroes, 1 (1, III): 1-34.

Burton, M., 1930a. Norwegian sponges from the Norman collection. Proc. zool. Soc. London, 2: 487-546.

Burton, M., 1931a. The Folden Fiord. Report on the sponges collected by Mr. Soot-Ryven in the Folden Fiord in the year 1923. Tromsø Mus. Skr., 1 (13): 1-8.

Carter, H.J., 1874a. Descriptions and figures of deep-sea sponges and their spicules from the Atlantic Ocean, dredged up on board HMS "Porucpine", chiefly in 1869; with figures and descriptions of some remarkable spicules from the Agulhas Shoal and Colon, Panama. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., (4) 14: 207-221, 245-257, pls. XIII-XV.

Vosmaer, G.C.J., 1885. Sponges of the "Willem Barents" Expedition, 1880 and 1881. Bijdr. Dierk., 12: 1-47.

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