Polymastia umbraculum

Taxobox
name = "Polymastia umbraculum"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Porifera
classis = Demospongiae
ordo = Hadromerida
familia = Polymastiidae
genus = "Polymastia"
species = "P. umbraculum"
binomial = "Polymastia umbraculum"
binomial_authority = Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, 1997

"Polymastia umbraculum" is a species of demosponge belonging to the family Polymastiidae. It is only known from rocky subtidal habitats around Kawau Island off North Island, New Zealand.

This is a thickly encrusting sponge with a very firm texture, growing in loosely attached patches up to 7 cm across. The granular outer layer is brilliant yellow-orange with a rather darker interior carrying many symbiont foraminifera. It is often infested with the parasitic amphipod "Polycheria antarctica".

References

*cite journal |quotes=no |url=http://www.rsnz.org/publish/nzjmfr/1997/32.pdf |title= Revision of Southwest Pacific Polymastiidae (Porifera: Demospongiae: Hadromerida) with descriptions of new species of "Polymastia" Bowerbank, "Tylexocladus" Topsent, and "Acanthopolymastia" gen. nov. from New Zealand and the Norfolk Ridge, New Caledonia |journal=New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research |volume=31 |year=1997 |author=Michelle Kelly-Borges & Patricia R. Bergquist |pages=367–402