Halichondria (Halichondria) bowerbanki Burton, 1930

Halichondria (Halichondria) bowerbanki Burton, 1930 View in CoL

( Figure 12 View FIGURE 12 )

Halichondria bowerbanki Burton 1930: 489 View in CoL .

Material examined: ESFM-POR/2017-616 , T3, 40–50 m, on stone, 2 specimens.

Description: Specimens have a very polymorphic morphology with long, string-like projections (0.5–1 mm in diameter) from a thin, encrusting base ( Figure 12a View FIGURE 12 ). Color is light yellow. The consistency is rather firm and compressible. The osculum is inconspicuous and irregular (1–5 mm). The ectosomal skeleton has a halichondroid skeletal structure, with spicules arranged randomly or in tight bundles ( Figure 12b View FIGURE 12 ). The choanosomal skeleton is disordered, with dendritic bundles terminating at the surface on different sides. Spicules consist only of oxeas (145–400 × 3.6–10.1 µm) ( Figure 12c–d View FIGURE 12 ). No microscleres.

Habitat and distribution: This Atlanto-Mediterranean species was reported from different hard and muddy substrata in the Adriatic Sea ( Cardone et al. 2014), Alboran Sea ( Carballo & Garcia-Gómez 1994), Tyrrhenian Sea ( Marra et al. 2016), Celtic Sea ( Morrow et al. 2012) and the northern Atlantic Ocean ( Montagu [1814] 1818). It was also found in cave habitats (0–7 m) in the Black Sea ( Ereskovsky et al. 2018) and on Mytilus galloprovincialis ( Evcen et al. 2023a) This species is a new record for the marine fauna of the Aegean Sea.