A guide to the deep-water sponges of - NMFS Scientific Publications ...

108. Haliclona (Gellius) primitiva (Lundbeck, 1902)
Description. According to Koltun (1959) this species
is massive-lobate, or cushion-shaped, up to 10.5 cm in
height, and often forms dactylate, lobate or other types
of projections. Aleutian Island specimens are dactylate
with hollow centers; up to three fingers are basally attached.
Surface is corrugated. Color in life is light yellow,
brown, or golden brown.
Skeletal structure. The ectosomal skeleton is a tangential,
unispicular reticulation of single spicules.
Conspicuous polyspicular tracts, several mm in length,
are connected by a reticulation of single spicules in the
choansosome. Oxeas are 140–175 × 8–13 µm and toxa
are 45–135 µm.
Zoogeographic distribution. Widespread but uncommon.
In Alaska – central Aleutian Islands and Bering
Sea. Elsewhere – North Pacific Ocean (Sea of Okhotsk,
Sea of Japan, Pacific coast of the Kuril Islands), Arctic
Ocean (White Sea), and North Atlantic Ocean (west of
Greenland).
Habitat. In Alaska – attached to pebbles at a depth
of 138 m. Elsewhere – found on sand, rock, and ooze
at depths between 27 and 200 m, at temperatures between
0.1 and 3.4°C, and at salinities between 27.0 and
33.9 psu.
Photos. 1) Partial specimen collected at a depth of 138
m in the central Aleutian Islands. Grid marks are 1 cm 2 .
2) Same specimen as in photo 1 (indicated by the white
arrows) in situ covered with ophiuroids.
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