A note on five freshwater sponges (Porifera: Spongillina: Spongillidae) from Pune, Maharashtra, India

Taxonomy of freshwater sponges of Maharashtra, India, with illustrated descriptions and notes on ecology and habitats (Porifera: Spongillida: Spongillidae)

“…2D): natural, large lotic water-bodies. [*reported earlier (Jakhalekar & Ghate 2013;Kulkarni et al 2015) The majority of the sponge collections were made between 2011 and 2015 from the shallow peripheral areas of the water-bodies. Dry seasons (summers) were mostly preferred for collections, as it was easier to collect the sponges from deeper zones of the water-beds by wading and the presence of mature gemmules in good number was also ensured.…”

“…But both these works do not incorporate either SEM observations on spicules / gemmules or habitus images. Studies on freshwater sponges of India after Annandale are sparse and have been summarised previously (Jakhalekar & Ghate 2013). According to Soota (1991), the Indian region possesses 30 species of freshwater sponges in 10 genera of the family Spongillidae Gray.…”

“…We previously reported on the taxonomy of five freshwater sponges from Maharashtra State, India, including the descriptions based on scanning electron microscopy, field observations documented with colour photographs, and notes on the habitats and ecology of five species (see Jakhalekar & Ghate 2013). Here we provide similar information about five more species, and also additional data on the previously reported species.…”

A report of hailstorm damage to two species of freshwater sponge (Demospongiae: Haplosclerida: Spongillidae) populations of West Bengal, India

“…Sponges were identified according to the morphology of their skeletal structures including megascleres, microscleres, gemmoscleres and the architecture of the gemmules, as seen under a SEM (Penney & Racek 1968;Jakhalekar & Ghate 2013) (Images 2 & 3). For identification, pieces of freshly collected live sponges were dissolved in concentrated nitric acid and washed with distilled water for isolation of the siliceous spicules (Annandale 1911;Soota 1991).…”

“…For ultra structural analyses with SEM, isolated spicules were thoroughly washed with distilled water and air dried. Longitudinal sections of the gemmules were made using a sharp stainless steel blade (Jakhalekar & Ghate 2013). Gemmules, both intact and sectioned, were fixed in 3% glutaraldehyde (Sigma, USA) in 0.1 M sodium cacodylate buffer (pH 7.8) for 2 hours at 4 0 C (Willenz & Van de Vyver 1982;Mukherjee et al 2015c), washed with cacodylate buffer 3 times and fixed in 1% osmium tetroxide (Sigma, USA) for 1 hour.…”