Familia Grantiidae

Dendy, 1892

Defintion: Leucosolenida in which a cortex is always present and sustained by a skeleton of tangential spicules. Choanocyte chambers are radial and elongated or spherical and scattered. The choanoskeleton is regular or more often articulate or arranged without apparent order, keeping in the last case some traces of the tubar organization particularly at the level of the subatrial triactines and/or tetractines. The atrial skeleton is well-developed.

Remarks: There are about 20 valid genera in the family.

Source: Hooper's Internet Sponge Guide

Genera represented in the area:
Grantia Fleming, 1828 (type species Grantia compressa(Fabricius, 1780): syconoid aquiferous system; longitudinal diactines, if present are not included in the cortex for their whole length.

Leuconia Grant, 1841 (type species L . nivea (Grant, 1826): leuconoid aquiferous system; internal diactines go through the cortex and protrude outside the sponge.

Ute Schmidt, 1862 (type species U . glabra Schmidt, 1864): syconoid aquiferous system; cortex sustained by giant longitudinal diactines; choanoskeleton articulate; no radial fascicles of diactines.

Amphiute Hanitsch, 1894a (type species A . paulini Hanitsch, 1894): syconoid aquiferous system; cortical and atrial skeleton sustained by giant longitudinal diactines.

Aphroceras Gray, 1858 (type species A . alcicornis Gray, 1858): leuconoid aquiferous system; cortex sustained by giant longitudinal diactines (Aphroceras ensata skel).

Trichogypsia Carter, 1871a (type species T . villosa Carter, 1871a): leuconoid aquiferous system; skeleton composed entirely of spined diactines.

Species included:
Amphiute paulini
Aphroceras ensata
Grantia canadensis
Grantia capillosa
Grantia compressa
Leuconia ananas
Leuconia aspera
Leuconia bulbosa
Leuconia fistulosa
Leuconia gossei
Leuconia johnstoni
Leuconia nivea
Leuconia pumila
Trichogypsia villosa
Ute gladiata

European species not treated:
Leuconia caminus (Haeckel, 1872), cf. Arndt, 1935: 18, fig. 23

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