Freshwater Sponges Found in Yorkshire
In the July 1898 number of ‘The Naturalist’ Mr. Ll. J. Cocks asks for records of Freshwater Sponges in Yorkshire and Northern Countis generally.
In my examination of the Diatomaceous gatherings, obtained from various sources within a radius of 10 or 12 miles grom Doncaster, I have on several occasions come across indications of the presence of both Spongilla lacustris and S. fluviatilis. (Found at Stone, near Roche Abbey, July 1899; in a sediment from Doncaster water, August 1898; and at Askern Bog, January 1898.) Probably the most notable instance occurred in treating sub-fossil deposit from the borders of Askern Bog with the view of determining the Diatoms present. Both the bi-rotulate spicules of S. flaviatilis and the fusiform ones of S. lacustris were met with in this case in considerable numbers and were a source of much interest.
In endeavouring to gain additional information on this subject my friend, Dr. Corbett, secured a fragment of a deposit taken grom the Manchester Reservoir about 30 years ago by Mr. Thomas Rogers, who had been commissioned to investigate the cause of a serious trouble with the Manchester water supply. This trouble was found to be due in a great measure to an excessive growth of Freshwater Sponges in the reservoir. From the deposit which came into my possession I succeeded in making a most interesting and characteristic slide of Sponge Spicules of which I enclose a photo-micrograph. Both varieties of Spicules are present in vast numbers, and, as a glance at my photograph will show, the gathering is a wonderfully pure one.
- H. Stiles, Doncaster, 28th August 1899.
Taken from ‘The Naturalist’ November 1899.