Desmacella cf. annexa (Schmidt, 1870)

Description: A soft, pale beige, encrusting sponge with conspicuous excurrent channels. Usually irregular in thickness, with a maximum thickness of 10mm.

Habitat: Usually on vertical or overhanging rock faces in moderate to strong water movement. Also found in caves.

Ecology: Commonly found overgrowing other sponges, especially Stryphnus ponderosus.

Distribution: Desmacella annexa was originally described from the Caribbean and is unlikely to be conspecific with specimens from the NE Atlantic. At present the NE Atlantic species appears to be un-named.

Distribution Map from BioMar data for Ireland - Google Earth map:  download this placemark (not got Google Earth installed?)

Distribution Map from NBN: JNCC MNCR Seasearch data - Grid map : Interactive map : National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.