green or globe sponge Latrunculia apicalis

Latrunculia apicalis is found in Antarctica and Kerguelen Island, Falkland Islands, and Argentina from 18 to 1,124+ meters depth [1,3,6,7,9,11].



The color of Latrunculia apicalis is dark olive green, yellowish gray, gray, brown, or wine red; it can be dark red or garnet in its interior [4,6,7,10].



The body of Latrunculia apicalis is massive, spherical or hemispherical, with a maximum height of 11.4 centimeters and a width of 7.5 centimeters [4,6].


Latrunculia apicalis has a smooth surface covered with crater-like or conical papillae and warty incurrent openings and one or more excurrent openings [4,6]. The apical oscule can be on top of a conical papillae a few millimeters high [10].


Here Latrunculia apicalis is located behind the sponge Clathria nidificata.

Five specimens of L. apicalis showed no growth in ten years [5].

An extract from Latrunculia apicalis has antibacterial and antiyeast activity [2].

Taxonomic Note: Latrunculia biformis is very close in characters to L. apicalis [8,10].

1: B.A.N.Z. Antarctic Research Expedition, 1929-1931, under the command of Sir Douglas Mawson, Kt., O.B.E., B.E., D.Sc., F.R.S., Reports -- Series B (Zoology and Botany). Volume 9, part 4. Porifera -- Part 1: Antarctic Sponges. VM Koltun. Adelaide : Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research, University of Adelaide, 1976; 2: Antarctic Science 4(2):179-183, 1992; 3: Hooper, JNA & Wiedenmayer, F. Porifera. IN: Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 12. Wells, A, ed. Melbourne : CSIRO Australia, 1994; 4: Antarctic Science 4(2):137-150, 1992; 5: Biologie des Spongiaires, Sponge Biology. C Levi and N Boury-Esnault, eds. Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Number 291. Paris : Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1979. pp.271-282; 6: Sponges of the Antarctic. I. Tetraxonida and Cornacuspongida. VM Koltun. IN: Biological reports of the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958 (Rezultaty biologicheskikh issledovanii Sovetskoi antarkticheskoi ekspeditsii, 1955-1958). Volume 2. EP Pavlovskii, ed. Jerusalem : Israel Program for Scientific Translations. 1966. pp.6-131; Appendix, Index of Latin Names on pp. 443-448; 7: Instituto Antartico Chileno. Serie Cientifica 39:97-158, 1989; 8: Ross Sea Expeditions 1987-1988 and 1989-1990, Straits of Magellan Expedition 1991, Data Report Part 3, Physical, Chemical and Biological Oceanography. F Faranda and L Guglielmo, eds. Genova : Repubblica Italiana, Ministry of the University and Scientific and Technological Research, National Scientific Commision for Antarctica, 1994. pp.67-100; 9: Polar Biology 12:559-585, 1992; 10: Les Demosponges du Plateau Continental de Kerguelen-Heard. N Boury-Esnault & M Van Beveren. CNFRA Number 52, 1982. Paris : Comite National Francais pour les Recherches Antarctiques; 11: Polar Biology 20(4):229-247, 1998

Text ©Peter Brueggeman. Photographs ©Bjørn Gulliksen (UWPhoto ANS) & Norbert Wu. Photographs may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Bjørn Gulliksen (UWPhoto ANS) & Norbert Wu.