Family LEUCOSOLENIIDAE Minchin, 1900

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Introduction

Leucosoleniidae Minchin, 1900 are all asconoid sponges. Their growth form is erect, with long, clustered oscular tubes arising as distinct individuals from the stolon-like system of basal tubes. Tubes may have diverticula and are also often arborescent (Hooper & Wiedenmayer 1994: fig. 146). Monaxon spicules (Hooper & Wiedenmayer 1994: figs 164–174) are always present; triradiates, if present, are typically bilateral, sagittal, inequiangular in form, with two of the rays forming a pair, while the third differs in some way, and never with the crystalline optic axis vertical, but always inclined to the facial plane of the rays (Hooper & Wiedenmayer 1994: figs 149, 150, 154, 155). Collar-cells have a flagellum arising directly from the pear-shaped nucleus, which is situated at or near the apex of the cell. Choanocytes line the central cavity (spongocoele) of the tubes that compose the sponges. There is a continuous choanoderm lining the internal cavity of the sponge, but there is no common cortex. Larvae are amphiblastulae.

This family has three established genera, all known from Australia, but one of these, Ascyssa, which has monaxonid spicules only, has not been collected again and remains a species inquirenda. Other species have wide geographic distributions, ranging from intertidal habitats to depths of at least 2400 m (Hartman 1982).

The family is reviewed in Bidder (1898, as Calcaronea, Leucosolenia and Ascyssa included); Minchin (1900, Leucosolenia and Ascyssa included); Minchin (1909), Dendy & Row (1913, merged in Homocoelidae with Clathrinidae); Hartman (1958, in Leucosoleniida, Leucosolenia and Ascyssa included), Borojevic (1968, Leucosolenia, Ascyssa and Ascute included); and Hartman (1982).

Diagnosis

Leucosolenida with a cormus composed of frequently branched, but rarely anastomosed, asconoid tubes, and with a continuous choanoderm that lines all the internal cavities of the sponge. There is neither a common cortex covering the cormus, nor a delimited inhalant or exhalant aquiferous system.

ID Keys

See order Leucosolenida diagnosis

Diagnosis References

Borojevic, R., Boury-Esnault, N., Manuel, M. & Vacelet, J. 2002. Order Leucosolenida Hartman, 1958. pp. 1157-1184 in Hooper, J.N.A. & Soest, R.W.M. Van (eds). Systema Porifera. A guide to the classification of sponges. New York : Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers Vol. 2. [1159]

General References

Bidder, G.P. 1898. The skeleton and classification of calcareous sponges. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 64: 61-76 10 figs

Borojevic, R. 1968. Systématique et évolution des éponges Calcaires. Dieuxième Thèse. Université de Paris. 33 pp.

Dendy, A. & Row, R.W.H. 1913. The classification and phylogeny of the calcareous sponges, with a reference list of all the described species, systematically arranged. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1913: 704-813

Hartman, W.D. 1958. A re-examination of Bidder's classification of the Calcarea. Systematic Zoology 7: 97-110

Hartman, W.D. 1982. Porifera. pp. 640-666 in Parker, S.P. (ed.). Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms. New York : McGraw-Hill Vol. 1.

Minchin, E.A. 1900. Porifera. pp. 1-178 in Lankester, E.R. (ed.). A Treatise on Zoology. The Porifera and Coelenterata. London : Adam and Charles Black Part 2.

Minchin, E.A. 1909. The relation of the flagellum to the nucleus in the collar-cells of calcareous sponges. Zoologischer Anzeiger 35: 227-231

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