Rahul A. Jamdade and Vishwas Y. Deshpande
The present study determines ecological distribution of freshwater sponges, from Krishna, Venna, Urmodi rivers and eleven reservoirs from Satara city. Out of the 31 species reported from India (Soota, 1991), 6 species were reported in this study. They are Ephydatia fluviatilis, Dosilla plumosa, Stratospongilla bombayensis, Spongilla lacustris, Eunapius carteri and Radiospongilla cerebelleta. Remarkable segregation of sampling sites based on lentic and lotic habitat was observed, where Eunapius carteri dominated lentic habitat and Ephydatia fluviatilis preferred lotic habitat. Overall, the results suggest that species distribution in freshwater sponges is based on habitat characteristics
