About Agelas dispar Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864
Agelas dispar Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 grows in massive, irregular shapes, sometimes forming bulbous mounds, and can also grow as an encrusting layer. It can reach up to 30 cm (12 in) across. This sponge has a firm, spongy consistency, with a smooth surface that bears many exhalent pores of irregular shape and size, which are often located in shallow pits. Its external color ranges from pinkish-brown and reddish-brown to deep brown. Internally, it contains large cavities, many primary canals measuring 2 to 8 mm (0.1 to 0.3 in) across, and narrower secondary canals. It has a fibrous, tightly-meshed skeleton made of spongin, made up of both ascending and tangential fibres. Its spicules are formed of bundles of acanthostyles, which have one blunt end, one pointed end, and are covered with 7 to 12 whorls of spines. Agelas dispar is distributed in the Caribbean Sea and around the West Indies, and it prefers to live on shallow-water reefs.
