The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma / edited by A.E. Shipley. Freshwater sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa / by N. Annandale.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma / edited by A.E. Shipley. Freshwater sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa / by N. Annandale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    The following is a list of the forms that in Bengal are definitely known to produce hard-shelled eggs, gemmules, resting-buds, or statoblasts only or most profusely at the approach of the hot weather and to flourish during winter:— Spongilla carteri. Spongilla alba. Spongilla alba var. bengalensis. Spongilla crassissima. Hydra vulgaris. Victorella bengalensis. Plurnatella fruticosa. Plumatella emarginata. Plurnatella javanica. The following forms flourish mainly during the “ rains ” :— Spongilla laeustris subsp. reticulata. Trocliospongilla latouchiana. Trochospongilla phUlottiana. Stolella indica. The following flourish throughout the year : — Spongilla prolifevens. Ilislopia laeustris. It is particularly interesting to note that three of the species that flourish in the mild winter of Bengal, namely Hydra vulgaris, Plumatella emarginata, and P. fruticosa, are identical with species that in Europe perish in winter. There is evidence, moreover, that the statoblasts of the genus to which two of them belong burst more readily, and thus give rise to new colonies, after being subjected to a considerable amount of cold. In Bengal they only burst after being subjected to the heat of the hot weather. Does extreme heat have a similar effect on aquatic organisms as extreme cold ? There is some evidence that it has. The species that flourish in India during the rains are all forms which habitually live near the surface or the edge of ponds or puddles, and are therefore liable to undergo desiccation as soon as the rains cease and the cold weather supervenes. The two species that flourish all the year round do not, properly speaking, belong to one category, for whereas Hislopia laeustris