Spongilla

Spongilla
Spongilla lacustris in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, Washington, USA.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Demospongiae
Order: Spongillida
Family: Spongillidae
Genus: Spongilla
Lamarck, 1816
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • Crelloxea Hechtel, 1983
  • Euspongilla Vejdovsky, 1883
  • Spongilla (Euspongilla) Vejdovsky, 1883

Spongilla is a genus of freshwater sponges. They can be found on submerged objects in clean lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers. Spongilla was first publicly recognized in 1696 by Leonard Plukenet and described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1816. The type species is Spongilla lacustris, described by Carl Linnaeus.

Spongilla have a leuconoid body form with a skeleton composed of siliceous spicules. They are sessile organisms, attaching themselves to hard substrate such as rocks, logs, and sometimes to ground. Using their ostia and osculum, these sponges filter the water for small aquatic organisms such as protozoans, bacteria, and other free-floating pond life. Sponges of the genus Spongilla partake in symbiotic relationships with the green algae, zoochlorellae, which gives the sponges a green appearance, and without which they would appear white.

Spongilla was used by John Hogg in the 19th century to attempt to justify a fourth kingdom of life.

Reproduction

Spongilla are hermaphrodites, producing egg and sperm. Sperm is released from one sponge and brought in through the ostia of another sponge. Once the sperm reaches the body cavity it fertilizes an egg, which develops into a free-swimming larva. The free-swimming larvae are released out the osculum and will eventually settle and attach elsewhere.[better source needed] Since the larvae are developed inside the spongilla, it is viviparous.

Unlike marine sponges, freshwater sponges are exposed to far more variable environmental conditions, so they have developed gemmules as an overwintering mechanism. This is a form of asexual reproduction. When exposed to environmental factors such as cooler water in the fall, or triggered by endogenous factors in the summer, the sponges form gemmules. Gemmules are highly resistant buds that can live dormant for extended periods of time. When conditions improve, the gemmules "germinate", and a new sponge is born.

Species

References

Footnotes
  1. ↑ van Soest, R. (2014). Van Soest RW, Boury-Esnault N, Hooper JN, Rützler K, de Voogd NJ, de Glasby BA, Hajdu E, Pisera AB, Manconi R, Schoenberg C, Janussen D, Tabachnick KR, Klautau M, Picton B, Kelly M, Vacelet J (eds.). "Spongilla Lamarck, 1816". World Porifera Database. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Douglas Grant (2001-08-07). Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States: Porifera to Crustacea. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 41, 48. ISBN 978-0-471-35837-4.
  3. ↑ Gunther, A (1881). The Annals and Magazine of natural history, zoology, botany, and geology. London Taylor and Francis, Ltd. p. 77.
  4. 1 2 Manconi, Renata; Pronzato, Roberto (2002), "Suborder Spongillina subord. nov.: Freshwater Sponges", in Hooper, John N. A.; Van Soest, Rob W. M.; Willenz, Philippe (eds.), Systema Porifera, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 926–927, doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-0747-5_97, ISBN 978-0-306-47260-2, retrieved 2026-05-22
  5. ↑ Brusca, Richard C. (2016). Invertebrates (3rd ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. p. 222. ISBN 9781605353753.
  6. 1 2 Skelton, J; Strand, M (2013). "Trophic ecology of a freshwater sponge ( Spongilla lacustris) revealed by stable isotope analysis". Hydrobiologia. 709 (1): 227–235. doi:10.1007/s10750-013-1452-6 – via ECBHost.
  7. ↑ Hogg, John (1860), "On the distinctions of a plant and an animal and on a fourth kingdom of Nature", Edinb N Phil J (N Ser), 12: 218–219
  8. ↑ Saller, Uwe; Weissenfels, Norbert (December 1985). "The development of Spongilla lacustris from the oocyte to the free larva (Porifera, Spongillidae)". Zoomorphology. 105 (6): 367–374. doi:10.1007/BF00312280. ISSN 0720-213X.
  9. ↑ Baldacconi, R.; Nonnis-Marzano, C.; Gaino, E.; Corriero, G. (2007-09-15). "Sexual reproduction, larval development and release in Spongia officinalis L. (Porifera, Demospongiae) from the Apulian coast". Marine Biology. 152 (4): 969–979. doi:10.1007/s00227-007-0747-4.
Bibliography