Literature data about glycosides from sponges (Porifera, Demospongiae) are reviewed. Structural diversity, biological activities, taxonomic distribution and biological functions of these natural products are discussed.

Found at all depths and latitudes, sponges are among the most ubiquitous of marine organisms. With the advent of modern laboratory and field techniques (e.g., electron microscopy, histochemistry, the development of molecular biology and biochemistry, and the use of SCUBA for collection purposes) our knowledge of sponge biology has mushroomed (see reviews by Fell, 1974; Bergquist et al., 1979). ...

Twenty-one species of Aaptos Gray, 1867 are known world-wide, of which only three were reported from Brazil. Two new species of this genus are here described from the Brazilian coast (Potiguar Basin, Northeastern Brazil): A. hajdui sp. nov. and A. potiguarensis sp. nov. Both possess only one category of strongyloxeas and one of styles, although both with wide size variation, suggesting that the...

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A new species of sponge without skeleton, Halisarca korotkovae sp. nov. is described from the Sea of Okhotsk. It differs from the other species of Halisarca by its different ecological conditions, as well as by its morphology and histology. The new species is characterized by its fulvous colour and by its big nucleolated, eosinophilic microgranular cells (18.7×9.5 to 10.8×7.1 μm) concentrated m...

Three species of Desmacella Schmidt, 1870 are described from the Brazilian coast: Desmacella microsigmata sp. nov., Desmacella tylovariabilis sp. nov. and Desmacella annexa Schmidt, 1870. The new species were compared with Desmacella species from the Atlantic Ocean, which differ by the size of their spicules and by the presence of microspined sigmas. Desmacella annexa was found to have microspi...

Damiria Keller, 1891 is defined by possessing fistular shape with apically microspined tylotes as the only megascleres, and microscleres that may include toxas (Hooper 2002). Van Soest et al. (1994) broadened the definition of Damiria to allow the inclusion of Damiria toxifera van Soest et al., 1994, first species with toxas in the genus. These were the first microscleres assigned to the genus....

Five species of dictyoceratid sponges were collected from trawling on the continental shelf of Sergipe State, Northeastern Brazil, of which three are new to science: Ircinia sergipana sp. nov., Ircinia repens sp. nov., Ircinia strobilina, Hyattella cavernosa and Smenospongia ramosa sp. nov., the latter the first record of the genus Smenospongia from Brazil. 

We describe two new species of Clathria (Microciona) Bowerbank, 1862: C. (M.) crassitoxa sp. nov. and C. (M.) trairae sp. nov. from Paraíba State (Northeastern Brazil). All are sciophilous species and are represented by small fragments removed from the substrate. Both new species have cleistochelae, and are compared with their cleistocheliferous congeners, differing from all of them by the poss...