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Sponges are mostly marine, comprising of 4562 species (Thomas, 1998). Amongst these, only about 100 species belonging to the family Spongillidae are freshwater sponges and distributed all over the globe (Thomas, op. cit.). These sponges grow as tufts or irregular masses on stones, sticks, logs, shells and other solid objects lying in freshwater. Some of these freshwater sponges occur in brackishwater also as reported by Annandale (1907a) from West Bengal, India.

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References

Annandale, N. 1907. Notes on the freshwater fauna of India. IX. Description of new freshwater sponges from Calcutta, with a record of two known speices from the Himalayas and a list of the Indian forms. J. Proc. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 3 : 15-16.

Annandale, N. 1907a. The fauna of brackishwater ponds at Port Canning, Lower Bengal, Part I. Introduction and preliminary account of the fauna. Rec. Indian Mus., 1 : 35-43.

Annandale, N. 1907b. Notes on freshwater sponges VI-VII. Rec. Indian Mus., 1 : 387-397.

Annandale, N. 1911. The Fauna British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Freshwater sponges, hydroids and polyzoa. 27-126 & 241-245.

Annandale, N. 1915. Fauna of Chilka lake, Sponges. Mem. Indian Mus., 5 : 21-54.

Pattanayak, J. G. 1998. Freshwater sponges. Zool. Surv. India, State fauna series, 3, Fauna of West Bengal, Part I, 1 : 1-7

Soota, T. D. 1991. Freshwater sponges of India. Rec. zool. Surv. India, Occ. Paper No. 138 : 116, text fig. 5

Soota, T. D. and Pattanayak, J. G. 1982. On some freshwater sponges from the unnamed collection of the Zoological Survey of India. Rec. zool. Surv. India, 80 : 215-229.

Thomas, P. A. 1998. Porifera. In : Faunal Diversity in India, pp. 27-36 (Eds. Aflred et al. ). Zool. Surv. India.

A Note on the Freshwater Bryozoa of West Bengal Wetlands

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Authors

Santanu Mitra ¹, J. G. Pattanayak ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Fire Proof Spirit Building, 27 J. L. Nehru Road, Kolkata-16, IN

Source

Journal of Environment and Sociobiology, Vol 7, No 2 (2010), Pagination: 199-200

Abstract

Bryozoa or Ectoprocta are small benthic, sessile and aquatic invertebrates growing as colonies of connected zooids on submerged substrates. They feed on suspended organic particles which they captured by the whorls of ciliated tentacles (lophophore). Of the estimated 8000 extant species of bryozoans (Ryland, 2005), only a small number are found in freshwater habitats. Till now 94 bryozoan species are found in freshwater consisting of 24 genera and 10 families (Massard and Geimer, 2008). Most of these species belong to the exclusively freshwater inhabiting class Phylactolaemata and reproduce asexually by means of statoblasts (buoyant floatoblasts and fixed sessoblasts), which are very important in identification of species. Freshwater bryozoan colony adheres to the surface of any substratum inside the water bodies, i.e., aquatic weeds, logs, stones, bricks or any other artificial substratum in the ponds, lakes, water reservoirs, streams, and rivers.

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References

Allman, G. J. 1856. A monograph of the freshwater Polyzoa. Ray Society, London. Pp. 119

Annandale, N. 1909. Preliminary note on a new genus of Phylactolaematous Polyzoa, Rec. Indian Mus., 3, p. 279

Annandale, N. 1911. Freshwater sponges, Hydroids and Polyzoa. The Fauna of British India. 1-261. London (Taylor & Francis)

Rao, K. S. and Kulsreshtha, K. S. 1962. Studies on freshwater Bryozoa. I. The bryozoa of Vindhyan region. J. Univ. Sougor., 2B : 50-64.

Rao, K. S. 1972. Studies on the freshwater Bryozoa. III. The Bryozoa of the Narmada system. Proc. Second. Inter. Conf. Bryozoa. IBA. Durham, 1971.

Rao, K. S. 1976. Studies on fresh water Bryozoa. IV. The Bryozoa of Rajasthan, India. Rec. Zool. Surv. India., 69 : 329-345.

Ryland, J. 2005. Bryozoa : an introductory overview. Denisia, 16 : 9-20.

Massard, Jos. A. and Geimer, Gaby. 2008. Global diversity of bryozoans (Bryozoa or Ectoprocta) in freshwater: an update. Bull. Soc. Nat. luxemb. 109 : 139-148.

Samanta, T. 1998. Freshwater Bryozoa, State Fauna Series 3, Fauna of West Bengal, part 10 : 445-461.

First Report of Three Phyla (Ctenophora : Echiura : Sipuncula) from Mangroves of Orissa

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Authors

M. K. Dev Roy ¹, J. G. Pattanayak ², S. Mitra ¹

Affiliations
1 Crustacea Section, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata-700016, IN
2 General Non Chordata Section, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata-700016, IN

Source

Journal of Environment and Sociobiology, Vol 8, No 2 (2011), Pagination: 252-252

Abstract

Although mangrove flora of Orissa are well inventorised, fauna inhabiting mangroves of this state, especially the lower invertebrates are very poorly known, barring a single publication by Chadha and Kar (1999). During the faunistic survey in March, 2011 under the project, "Mangrove Associated fauna of Orissa coast" the authors had observed and collected three species of invertebrates, namely, Pleurobranchia globosa (Phylum Ctenophora), Anelassorhynchus microrhynchus (Phylum Echiura) and Phascolosoma arcuatum (Phylum Sipuncula) from mangrove habitats of Orissa. Among these, P. globosa was observed to be very common in the fishing nets at Hukitola (River Mahanadi) and Bandar (River Devi) while A. microrhynchus and P. arcuatum were collected from Bandar (Devi River, district Jagatsingpur and Balabhadrapur in district Puri) and Jashipur (Budha Balanga River, district Balasore). P. arcuatum was found in the muddy bank in sparsely distributed mangroves. P. globosa was observed in Mahanadi estuary surrounded by dense mangroves while A. microrhynchus had been collected from dense (in Bandar) as well as sparse (in Balabhadrapur) mangroves. A perusal of literature reveals that the sipunculid P. arcuatum had been reported earlier from mangroves of Andaman Islands (Das and Dev Roy, 1989) and all the three species from Sundarbans mangrove region (Mandal and Nandi, 1989).

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