Phylum II 



Porifera, Class Noncalcarea 



NOTES ON THE CULTIVATION AND GROWTH OF SPONGES 

 FROM REDUCTION BODIES, DISSOCIATED CELLS, AND 



LARVAE 



H. V. Wilson, University of North Carolina 



PRODUCTION OF, AND GROWTH OF SPONGES FROM, REDUCTION BODIES 



SPONGES {Stylotella heliophila) are placed in outside aquaria, con- 

 crete or wooden tubs, covered with glass and not in direct sunlight. 

 The sponges should be clean, raised from the bottom on bricks; half a 

 dozen to an aquarium 60 cm. in diameter and 30 cm. deep. The aqua- 

 rium (tub) is emptied, filled, and flushed for some minutes three times 

 in every twenty-four hours. Reduction begins in a day or two. In the 

 course of two or three weeks gradual death of the tissues coupled with 

 reduction leads to the formation of many small living masses of varying 

 shape lodged on and through the skeletal network of the sponge. In the 

 most striking cases these masses are numerous, more or less spheroidal 

 and small, 1 to 1% mm. in diameter. Such a dead and macerated sponge 

 body with its contained nodules of brightly colored living tissue suggests 

 a Spongilla full of gemmules. The histological structure of nodules varies 

 with their age, but is very simple, although many details in the process 

 of reduction are unknown. 



The reduction bodies have regenerative power. If enclosed in bolting 

 cloth bags and hung in a live box they quickly transform into sponges. 

 Probably with a very excellent water supply the transformation could 

 be induced in the laboratory. 



Similar bodies have been produced in the Calcarea (Otto Maas) and 

 in freshwater sponges (K. Muller). (See Wilson, 1907a.) 



GROWTH OF SPONGES FROM DISSOCIATED CELLS 



A sponge {Microciona prolijera) is cut up into small bits about 3 

 mm. in diameter, which are allowed to fall on a piece of fine bolting cloth 

 supported on the edge of a stender dish and semi-immersed. The cloth 

 is then folded like a bag around the bits of sponge, is partially immersed 



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