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Taxon
Halecium antarcticum Vanhöffen, 1910
Nomenclature
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Family: HaleciidaeGenus: Halecium
SUMMARY
Hydrorhiza reptant on sponge; stolons tubular, rugose, loosely adherent to substrate.
Shorter stems monosiphonic; stems beginning with several broad basal annulations above junction with hydrorhiza; taller stem branched, lightly fascicled with several wide, tangled tubes running almost to tip of colony and along primary branches.
Branching irregular and disorderly, branches bent outwards at various angles from main stem, ultimate branches short, straight, monosiphonic. Monosiphonic branch internodes fairly wide, cylindrical, walls smooth, nodes deep, oblique, sloping away from hydrophore, a tumescence and often one or several deep corrugations in perisarc above node.
Primary hydrophores alternate on stem, one distal on each internode, cylindrical, length variable but typically moderately long, abcauline wall curving smoothly away from internode, adcauline wall more or less straight.
Hydrotheca bowl-shaped, expanding from diaphragm to margin, rim everted and a little outrolled. Diaphragm fairly distinct, a few desmocytes above. Hydrophores typically regenerated in linear series of up to five; successive hydrophores variable in length, each arising from diaphragm of preceding hydrotheca; hydrophores with broad basal kinks and up to 10 close corrugations.
Gonothecae probably male, inserted in hydrophore on distal monosiphonic branches; shape variable from flattened clavate to ovoid with a low apical dome with flattened top.
Perisarc of stem, branches and hydrothecae rather thick, very thin on gonothecae.
Colour (preserved material) deep honey brown, paler on monosiphonic branches; gonotheca colourless.