Coelosphaeridae

Live individual of Forcepia, from the Florida Sea Grant.

Belongs within: Poecilosclerida.

The Coelosphaeridae is a group of sponges with reduced inhalant and exhalant openings.

Characters (from Bergquist 1978): Generally of spherical shape; inhalant and exhalant openings reduced to specialised tubular fistules; remainder of surface a dense layer of tangentially disposed diactinal megascleres. Choanosome a very delicate network of plumoreticulate spicule fibres, collapsing if sponge is removed from water. Microscleres are chelae, toxas, sigmas and microxeas.

<==Coelosphaeridae
    |--Coelosphaera Thomson 1873 [incl. Histoderma Carter 1874] BJ06
    |    |--‘Histoderma’ dichela Hentschel 1912 BJ06
    |    |    |--H. d. dichela BJ06
    |    |    `--H. d. gracilis Hentschel 1912 BJ06
    |    `--‘Histoderma’ navicelligerum BJ06
    |         |--H. n. navicelligerum BJ06
    |         `--H. n. aruensis Hentschel 1912 BJ06
    `--Forcepia Carter 1874 [incl. Wilsa de Laubenfels 1930] L01
         |  i. s.: F. mertoni Hentschel 1912 BJ06
         `--F. (Forcepia) L01
              |--F. (F.) acanthostylosa Lee 2001 L01
              |--F. (F.) elvini Lee 2001 L01
              |--F. (F.) forcipula (Lundbeck 1905) [=Esperiopsis forcipula, Leptolabis forcipula] L01
              |--F. (F.) hartmani Lee 2001 L01
              |--F. (F.) hymena (de Laubenfels 1930) [=Wilsa hymena] L01
              |--F. (F.) japonica Koltun 1959 L01
              |--F. (F.) macrostylosa Lee 2001 [=F. macrotylota (l. c.)] L01
              `--F. (F.) topsenti Lundbeck 1905 L01

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BJ06] Barnich, R., & D. Janussen. 2006. Die Typen und Typoide des Naturmuseums Senckenberg, Nr. 86. Type catalogue of the Porifera in the collections of the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Senckenbergiana Biologica 86 (2): 127-144.

Bergquist, P. R. 1978. Sponges. University of California Press.

[L01] Lee, W. L. 2001. Four new species of Forcepia (Porifera, Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida, Coelosphaeridae) from California, and synonymy of Wilsa de Laubenfels, 1930, with Forcepia, Carter, 1874. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 52 (18): 227-244.