Spongicolidae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of glass sponge shrimp in the order

Decapoda The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, a ...

. There are about 8 genera and more than 40 described species in Spongicolidae. Apart from the shallows-dwelling genus '' Microprosthema'', the family consists of

glass sponge Hexactinellid sponges are sponges with a skeleton made of four- and/or six-pointed silica, siliceous spicule (sponge), spicules, often referred to as glass sponges. They are usually biological classification, classified along with other sponges i ...

infauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

, living within the

body cavity A body cavity is any space or compartment, or potential space, in an animal body. Cavities accommodate organs and other structures; cavities as potential spaces contain fluid. The two largest human body cavities are the ventral body cavity, a ...

of the sponge, presumably for life with a few other sponge shrimp. The sponge infaunal species most often inhabit ''Euplectella'' sponges, but can be found in '' Hyalonema sieboldii'', ''Dactylocalyx pumiceus'', '' Regradella phoenix'', and ''R. okinosena''.

Genera

These eight genera belong to the family Spongicolidae: * '' Engystenopus'' Alcock & Anderson, 1894 * '' Globospongicola'' Komai & Saito, 2006 * '' Microprosthema'' Stimpson, 1860 * '' Paraspongicola'' de Saint Laurent & Cleva, 1981 * '' Spongicola'' de Haan, 1844 * '' Spongicoloides'' Hansen, 1908 * '' Spongiocaris'' Bruce & Baba, 1973 * † '' Jilinicaris'' Schram, Shen, Vonk & Taylor, 2000

Genera

References

Further reading