Agelas

Agelas
Orange elephant ear sponge, Agelas clathrodes, in foreground. Two soft corals in the background: a sea fan, Iciligorgia schrammi, and a sea rod, Plexaurella nutans.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Demospongiae
Order: Agelasida
Family: Agelasidae
Genus: Agelas
Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 [1]
Species
See text

Agelas is a genus of demosponge. It is the only member of the family Agelasidae.

Ecology and distribution

Members of this genus are filter feeders.[1] and occur in the West Indies, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in shallow tropical and subtropical waters[2] down to a depth of 30 metres (98 ft) or exceptionally 50 metres (160 ft).

Spicules

Some authorities report that the spongin fibres contain no coring spicules while others report that there are some of variable length.[3] Fernando Parra-Velandia however, describing the Caribbean species in the group, writes that "The presence of verticillated acanthostyle spicules and a fibroreticulate skeleton of spongin fibres cored and/or echinated by spicules characterize this group."[2]

Species

The World Register of Marine Species includes the following species in the genus:[1]

  • Agelas axifera Hentschel, 1911
  • Agelas bispiculata Vacelet, Vasseur & Lévi, 1976
  • Agelas braekmani Thomas, 1998
  • Agelas cavernosa Thiele, 1903
  • Agelas cerebrum Assmann, van Soest & Köck, 2001
  • Agelas cervicornis (Schmidt, 1870)
  • Agelas ceylonica Dendy, 1905
  • Agelas citrina Gotera & Alcolado, 1987
  • Agelas clathrodes (Schmidt, 1870)
  • Agelas conifera (Schmidt, 1870)
  • Agelas dendromorpha Lévi, 1993
  • Agelas dilatata Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864
  • Agelas dispar Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864
  • Agelas flabelliformis (Carter, 1883)
  • Agelas gracilis Whitelegge, 1897
  • Agelas inaequalis Pulitzer-Finali, 1986
  • Agelas linnaei De Voogd, Parra-Velandia & Van Soest, 2008
  • Agelas marmarica Lévi, 1958
  • Agelas mauritiana (Carter, 1883)
  • Agelas nakamurai Hoshino, 1985
  • Agelas nemoechinata Hoshino, 1985
  • Agelas novaecaledoniae Lévi & Lévi, 1983
  • Agelas oroides (Schmidt, 1864)
  • Agelas repens Lehnert & van Soest, 1998
  • Agelas robusta Pulitzer-Finali, 1982
  • Agelas rudis Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864
  • Agelas sceptrum (Lamarck, 1815)
  • Agelas schmidti Wilson, 1902
  • Agelas semiglaber Pulitzer-Finali, 1996
  • Agelas sventres Lehnert & van Soest, 1996
  • Agelas tubulata Lehnert & van Soest, 1996
  • Agelas wiedenmayeri Alcolado, 1984

References

  1. 1 2 3 van Soest, Rob (2012). R. W. M. Van Soest, N. Boury-Esnault, J. N. A. Hooper, K. Rützler, N. J. de Voogd, B. Alvarez de Glasby, E. Hajdu, A. B. Pisera, R. Manconi, C. Schoenberg, D. Janussen, K. R. Tabachnick, M. Klautau, B. Picton, M. Kelly & J. Vacelet, eds. "Agelas Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864". World Porifera database. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  2. 1 2 Parra-Velandia, Fernando J.; Zea, Sven; Van Soest, Rob W. M. (2014). "Reef sponges of the genus Agelas (Porifera: Demospongiae) from the Greater Caribbean" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3794 (3): 301–343. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3794.3.1.
  3. ↑ Hoshino, Takaharo (1985). "Description of two new species of the genus Agelas (Demispongia) from Zamari Island, the Ryukyus, Japan". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Japan. 30: 1–10.
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