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

;8P0NGIIDA. 3858. Stelospongus intertextus.? Hyatt, Mem. Bosf. Soc. ii. p. o.")2.A fragment of what was probably either a cup-shaped or flabellatespecimen is, perhaps, referable to this species : the structure ofthe skeleton agrees fairly with Hyatt's description ; at some littledistance below the surface the primary skeleton-lines are very stout,viz. -14 millim. and upwards in diameter, and mostly cored, notcoated, by foreign material ; the skeleton is elastic and very compressible.Hah. Port Jackson, 0-5 fms.Distribution. Mauritius? (l/i/att)?CARTEEISPONGIA.Halispongia, Bowerbmik, Mon. Brit. Spoiu/. i. p. 207 (nee De Blaitiville).Carteriospongia, Hyatt, Mem. Bast. Sac. ii. p. 540.Mauricea, Carter, Ann. 8j- Mag. N. H. (4) xx. p. 174.De Elainville founded the genus tLdispomjia (Man. Actinol.p. 532) to contain a number of sponges, of which the first is Sponqiajiapillaris, Grant (=HaUcJi.ondria panieea, Johnston), and whichare stated in the generic diagnosis to contain siliceous spiculestherefore Bowerbank is clearly wrong when he describes and figures(Mon. Brit, Spong, i. pp. 207, 278) an obviously horny sponge astypical of the genus. The sponges which he has referred by name tothis genus {H. cJioanoides, mantelli, ventriculoides, stellifera) appearto be all in accordance with his, but not with De Blainville's ideaof the genus. Hyatt formed the genus Carteriospongia nominallyfor a species called by him otaliitica, Esper, which is, however,apparently lamelJosa, Esper, to the plate of which he refers. Thissjjecies differs in outward form from the cup- shaped or palmateHaiispomjia' of Bowerbank, but agrees with them in the skeleton-"structure, while some Haiispomjia' agree in possessing the cabbagelikegrowth which characterizes Hyatt's typical Carteriospongice.So many species (Halinpongia ventriculoides, Spongia Jissurata,Lamk., &c.), which appear to agree in all other points with Hyatt'sconception of the genus, have, nevertheless, the secondary fibressand-cored, that I venture to omit the character " absence of foreignmatter from the secondary or connecting fibres," which he attributesnot only to the genus, but to the entire family Phyllospongiadsein which he ])laces it. Schulzc (Z. wiss. Zool. xxxii. p. 013) upholdsthis genus as a true member of the family Spongiidae as revised byhimself. In the second part of this work I shall explain the reasonswhy I cannot admit Mauricea as a distinct genus.9. Carterispongia otaliitica.Spongia otulutica, Esper, Pjiaiizenth. Fortsetz. i. p. 209, pi. Ixi.figs. 7, 8.Halispongia ventriculoides, Boiccrhank, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 301, pl. xlvii.figs. 1, 2.2c