Hemimycale columella is an encrusting sponge of 10 to 30 cm in diameter and up to
more than 1 cm thick. It has an irregular form varying in colour from pink to pale orange. The surface
is covered with
irregularly circular craters, containing the inhaling openings. The crater edges are underlined by
a clear margin. It lives attached to rocks sometimes in close contact with algae or benthic animals.
It is recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel and the Mediterranean Sea.
Anchinoe fictitius has also a surface covered with circular craters but their edges are not underlined by a paler margin and they are more regularly placed.The colour of A. fictitius is red, pink or yellowish-grey.
Phylum Porifera, class Demospongiae, order Poecilosclerida, family Hymedesmiidae, Hemimycale columella (Bowerbank, 1866).
Inhaling pore: = Ostioles. Holes through which water enters the sponge.
Benthic animals: Animals living on the bottom, attached or not, opposed to pelagic animals
that is to say free-swimming animals.
Photograph: © Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with author's kind permission.
Hemimycale columella, Bay of Concarneau, South-Brittany, West of France. Depth 4 meters.
Text: Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat © 2004-2008.
Translation: Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2007-2008.
