Comprehensive Revision of a Worldwide Collection of Freshwater Sponges (Porifera, Spongillidae)

Abstract

In the Biilletin series, the first of which was issued in 1875, appear longer, separate publications consisting of monographs (occasionally in several parts) and volumes in which are collected works on related subjects. Bulletins are either octavo or quarto in size, depending on the needs of the presentation.

Freshwater sponges (Porifera, Demospongiae) in a benthic filter feeding community at the Guanacaste Dry Forest, Costa Rica

“…POIRRIER (1976) after a comparative study of materials of S. alba, Spongilla wagneri Potts, 1889 and S. cenota stablished S. alba (containing S. wagneri in its synonymy) as a species apart of S. cenota, on account of the gemmular structure, gemmoscleres and habitat characteristics presented by the two species. The hypothesis put forth by PENNEY & RACEK (1968) that the materials from Cenote Xtoloc they described as S. cenota (and which OLD, 1936 had previously identified as Spongilla lacustris) might represent a distant population of S. alba was thus refuted by POIRRIER (1976).…”

“…The bryozoans in the GCA were found . Spongilla cenota Penney & Racek, 1968, SEM illustrations of spicules and gemmules: 20, megasclere, microscleres and gemmoscleres; 21, detail of the microspined surface of the megascleres; 22, detail of the spines on the microsclere; 23, detail of the spines on the gemmoscleres; 24, the irregular shape of the gemmule and of the foraminal apperture; 25, cross section of the gemmule showing the random incrusting of the gemmoscleres; 26, section of the thick pneumatic layer with its minute air spaces and the projection of the extremities of two gemmoscleres. (meg, megascleres; mic, microsclere; gem, gemmoscleres).…”

“…ROUSH (1999) in announcing the survey of freshwater Bryozoans which he carried out in the Guanacaste Conservation Area, in Costa Rica, remarked the restriction of their occurrences to the Deciduous Forest Area and the occurrence of freshwater sponges in the same habitats. He, preliminarily, identified the sponge genera Radiospongilla Penney & Racek, 1968, Dosilia Gray, 1867, Corvomeyenia Weltner, 1913, Trochospongilla Vejdovsky, 1883 and the species Spongilla cenota Penney & Racek (1968). ROUSH (2000) published the results of the survey of Bryozoans and sent the sponge material to the senior author for study.…”

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).…”

Rediscovery of the type material of Spongilla lacustris (L., 1759) in the Linnean herbarium

“…It is one of the most common and widespread freshwater sponges in the northern hemisphere ( Fig. 1) (Penney & Racek, 1968;Banarescu, 199D, its holartic range being constrained to cold-temperate climates by both the hibernant biorhythm and the behaviour of diapausing gemmules that can hatch only after low temperature exposure (Rasmont, 1968;Fell & Levasseur, 1991;Fell, 1995). Gemmules, with a variable morphology, are produced during cyclic reorganizative phenomena of sponge body plan and perform a key role in the life history of S. lacustris both as standing biomass under climatic-environmental stresses and/or as propagules in dispersal strategies (Simpson & Fell, 1974;Frost et al, 1982;.…”