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

Abstract

The type material of Spongilla lacustris, recently found in the Linnean herbarium, is described. Type locality and present distribution are shown. Morphological diagnostic traits are described by SEM microphotography. This is the single species of Porifera out of 12 described by Linnaeus in 1759, with type specimen known. A lectotype is selected from two syntypes.

Biodiversity in South East Asia: an overview of freshwater sponges (Porifera: Demospongiae: Spongillina)

“…To obtain perfectly cleaned spicule preparations for SEM observation and LM slides for a voucher collection, sponge fragments were dissolved in boiling 65% nitric acid or in sodium hypochlorite (ambient temperature) in test tubes and then suspended in water. To achieve total sedimentation of the lighter, smaller N o n c o m m e r c i a l u s e o n l y spicules, they were suspended and repeatedly rinsed with distilled water and then dehydrated in graded ethanol series, with a gap of 15-20 min between successive washing (Manconi and Pronzato, 2000). Spicules suspended in alcohol have been poured from tubes with a slow movement to leave the deposit of spicules in 0.5 mL of the medium within the tube before dropping some suspended spicules on slides for LM and SEM analysis (Manconi and Pronzato, 2000).…”

“…To achieve total sedimentation of the lighter, smaller N o n c o m m e r c i a l u s e o n l y spicules, they were suspended and repeatedly rinsed with distilled water and then dehydrated in graded ethanol series, with a gap of 15-20 min between successive washing (Manconi and Pronzato, 2000). Spicules suspended in alcohol have been poured from tubes with a slow movement to leave the deposit of spicules in 0.5 mL of the medium within the tube before dropping some suspended spicules on slides for LM and SEM analysis (Manconi and Pronzato, 2000). After the total evaporation of alcohol, each slide fragment was fixed on a stub with silver glue drops.…”

“…The earliest naturalists grouped freshwater sponges, and in general Porifera, with plants because of their sessile nature, greenish-brownish colour, and growth form Spongilla lacustris (Linnaeus, 1759) was described (as Spongia lacustris) by Linnaeus (1759) as repens, fragilis, ramis teretibus obtusis (creeping, fragile, with cylindrical branches showing swellings at their ends) in the second volume of Plantae of the Systema Naturae, and the type material was preserved in the Linnean Herbarium (Manconi and Pronzato, 2000). Sponges were not recognised as animals until 1765, when the internal water current was first described, and only in 1875, Huxley proposed the complete separation of sponges from other Metazoa (Gaino, 2011).…”

Freshwater sponges and their associated invertebrates in the Great Lakes Basin (Mongolia)

“…Material was processed under stereoscopic trinocular microscope Carton TRIO0750, photos were made using the digital camera ToupCam 9.0 MP. Sponge spicules were purified according standard method (Manconi, Pronzato, 2000) and studied under Cam Scan S2 scanning microscope.…”

SEM-EDS and X-ray micro computed tomography studies of skeletal surface pattern and body structure in the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris collected from Goczalkowice reservoir habit (Southern Poland)

“…It is one of the most common and widespread freshwater sponges in the northern hemisphere [5]. It is also a classical model organism used to study evolution, gene regulation, development, physiology and structural biology in non-bilaterian animal systems [6][7][8].…”