Ile de Groix, France, 18 meters, 2013, WBN
Le Trieux, France, 10 meters, 2020, WBN
Glénan Archipelago, France, 10 meters, 2004, WBN
Pointe de Trévignon, France, 8 meters, 2012, WBN
Ushant, France, 12 meters, 2017, WBN
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.
Phorbas fictitius also has 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 P. fictitius is red, pink or yellowish-grey.
Hemimycale columella is recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel and the Mediterranean Sea.
Source : World Register of Marine Species
Biota (Monde)
Animalia (Règne)
Porifera (Embranchement)
Demospongiae (Classe)
Heteroscleromorpha (Sous-classe)
Poecilosclerida (Ordre)
Hymedesmiidae (Famille)
Hemimycale (Genre)
Hemimycale columella (Espèce)
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.
Text :Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat © 2004 - 2026.
Photos : © Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with his kind permission.
Image satellite: © Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community.
Données de distribution : Hemimycale columella (Bowerbank, 1874) in GBIF Secretariat (2019). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-07-19.
Source : World Register of Marine Species
Biota (Monde)
Animalia (Règne)
Porifera (Embranchement)
Demospongiae (Classe)
Heteroscleromorpha (Sous-classe)
Poecilosclerida (Ordre)
Hymedesmiidae (Famille)
Hemimycale (Genre)
Hemimycale columella (Espèce)
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.
Text : Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat © 2004 - 2026.
Photos : © Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with his kind permission.
Bay-Nouailhat W., april 2004, Description de Hemimycale columella, [En ligne] https://www.mer-littoral.org/uk/02/hemimycale-columella.php, consultée le 19 juillet 2026.
Author
Plongeur - Naturaliste
Photographe Sous-Marin
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