Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

SPONGllDA. 439lateral margins reverted at upper end ; tubercle strong, ovaJ ; breadthand length of small end about half those of larger end ; length ofspicule -llJ millira. (3) Small inequianchorate ; shaft slender, sharplybent at about middle ; larger end about three fourths of total lengthof spicule in length and about half that amount in breadth ; the lateralarms as seen from front finely curved and forming long wing- likeprocesses, pointed below and excavated on their inferior and inneraspects, reaching almost to the upper edge of the smaller end of thespicule ; their curve coincides with that of the lower end : smallerend like that of the large inequianchorate, but truncate at its distalextremity ; length of spicule -032 millim. (4) Eihamate, contort,slender, curve wide, points sharp ; size •057 by '0032 millim.(5) Trichites, in sheaves of 10 to 20 or 30 : finely pointed, apparentlystraight, each about -032 long by -00 16 millim. thick ; veryabundant in some parts of dermal membrane.Hub. Thursday Island, Torres Straits, 4-6 fms. ; bottom rock andsand.Distribatioa. Freemantle, S.W. Australia {Carter) '1 ; IndianOcean (ScJimidf) ?The larger piece is 43 millim. (1| inch) long, by 20 millim. (| inch)broad, by 10 millim. thick ; it is uncertiiin whether it ever had anindependent stem or whether it depended for attachment on the fragmentsof shells etc. which it involves in its substance, or on fixedforeign bodies ; the smaller piece is similar in its relations, andperhaps both originally formed part of one specimen.The large anchorate strongly resembles that figured by Schmidt(?. c. supra) as belonging to " eine indische Esperie," named Mycalef/randis by Gray (I.e.), in the form of its larger end, although theanterior palm is relatively larger than in that form, while the middlepalm of the lower end is far smaller relatively to the spicule andto the lateral palms than in Schmidt's anchorate ; but it seems likelyfrom its appearance that the lower end of the spicule was imperfectlydeveloped in the example figured by Schmidt. The spiculewas even larger than that of our species, viz. "145 millim. long,according to Schmidt's measurement, Gray's species is based simplyon that author's description of the spicule.PHOmOSPONGIA.Marshall, Zeitschr. iviss. Zool. xxxv. p. 122.The striking structural character on which this genus wasfounded receives confirmation and illustration from the followingspecies: I have referred to it as occurring in Clathria (Microciona)tuberosa, Bowerbank (see p. 444). FUmlaria anchorata. Carter, fromAntigua (Ann, & Mag. N, H, 1882, ix, p. 283), is perhaps a Phoriosponrjia.72. Phoriospongia fibrosa. (Plate XLII. fig. ^.)Massive, sessile, irregularly shaped; surface uneven, with irregular