Agelas
Agelas | |
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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 | |
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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]
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References
- 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.
- 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.
- ↑ 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.