''Dragmacidon lunaecharta'', also known as the red ball sponge or red boring sponge, is a species of
sea sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through th ...
found in the western Atlantic Ocean. It feeds on
plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...
. These sponges do not attach themselves to rocks or the sea floor but drift in water currents. Its main predators are seaslugs. It has been kept in home aquariums.
Taxonomy
It was first described in 1886 by
Stuart Oliver Ridley and
Arthur Dendy
Arthur Dendy (20 January 1865, in Manchester – 24 March 1925, in London) was an English zoologist known for his work on marine sponges and the terrestrial invertebrates of Victoria, Australia, notably including the "living fossil" '' Peripatus'' ...
as ''Axinella lunaecharta,''
but in 1887, in their final report, they transferred it to the genus, ''Pseudaxinella.''
In 1917, E.F. Hallman revised some genera in the family,
Axinellidae, and transferred it to the genus, ''
Dragmacidon''.
References
External links
Plate XXXVII ''Axinella lunaecharta''
Axinellidae
Taxa named by Arthur Dendy
Taxa named by Stuart Oliver Ridley
{{Demosponge-stub