Fig. 69.—Larva of Gellius varius shortly after fixation. The pigmented pole, originally posterior, is turned towards the reader. R, Marginal membrane with pseudopodia; x, hinder pole. (After Maas.)
Ephydatia fluviatilis.
In the fresh water of our rivers, ponds, and lakes, sponges are represented very commonly by Ephydatia (Spongilla) fluviatilis, a cosmopolitan species. The search for specimens is most likely to be successful if perpendicular timbers such as lock-gates are examined, or the underside of floating logs or barges, or overhanging branches of trees which dip beneath the surface of the water.
The sponge is sessile and massive, seldom forming branches, and is often to be found in great luxuriance of growth, masses of many pounds weight having been taken off barges in the Thames. The colour ranges from flesh-tint to green, according to the exposure to light. This fact is dealt with in a most interesting paper by Professor Lankester,[[202]] who has shown not only that the green colour is due to the presence of chlorophyll, but that the colouring matter is contained in corpuscles similar to the chlorophyll corpuscles of green plants, and, further, that the flesh-coloured specimens contain colourless corpuscles, which, though differing in shape from those which contain the green pigment, are in all probability converted into these latter under the influence of sufficient light. The corpuscles, both green and colourless, are contained in amoeboid cells of the dermal layer;[[203]] and in the same cells but not in the corpuscles are to be found amyloid substances.
The anatomy of Ephydatia fluviatilis is very similar to that of Halichondria panicea, differing only in one or two points of importance. The ectosome is an aspiculous membrane of dermal tissue covering the whole exterior of the sponge and forming the roof of a continuous subdermal space. This dermal membrane is perforated by innumerable ostia, and is supported above the subdermal cavity by means of skeletal strands, which traverse the subdermal cavity and raise the dermal membrane into tent-like elevations, termed conuli. The inhalant canals which arise from the floor of the subdermal cavity are as irregular as in H. panicea, and interdigitate with equally irregular exhalant canals; these latter communicate with the oscular tubes. Between the two sets of canals are the thin folds of the choanosome with its small subspherical chambers provided with widely open apopyles (Fig. 70). The soft parts are supported on a siliceous skeleton of oxeas, which may have a quite smooth surface or may be covered in various degrees with minute conical spines (Fig. 72, a, b). These spicules are connected by means of a substance termed spongin deposited around their overlapping ends, so as to form an irregular network of strands, of which some may be distinguished as main strands or fibres, others as connecting fibres. In the main fibres several spicules lie side by side, while in the connecting fibres fewer or frequently single spicules form the thickness of the fibre. The fibres are continuous at the base with a plate or skin of spongin, which is secreted over the lower surface of the sponge and intervenes between it and the substratum. Of the chemical composition of spongin we shall speak later (see p. [237]). It is a substance which reaches a great importance in some of the higher sponges, and forms the entire skeleton of certain kinds of bath sponge. Lying loose in the soft parts and hence termed flesh spicules, or microscleres, are minute spicules of peculiar form. These are the amphidiscs, consisting of a shaft with a many-rayed disc at each end (Fig. 72).
Fig. 70.—Ephydatia fluviatilis. Section of flagellated chamber, showing the choanocytes passing through the apopyle. (After Vosmaer and Pekelharing.)
In addition to its habitat the fresh-water sponge is worthy of attention on account of its methods of reproduction, which have arisen in adaptation to the habitat. A similar adaptation is widespread among fresh-water members of most aquatic invertebrates.[[204]]
Ephydatia fluviatilis normally produces not only free-swimming larvae of sexual origin, but also internal gemmules arising asexually. These bodies appear in autumn, distributed throughout the sponge, often more densely in the deeper layers, and they come into activity only after the death of the parent, an event which happens in this climate at the approach of winter.
