BENDY NON-CALCAREOUS SPONGES 119 



usual, orange. It differs from my Ceylon specimens only in the somewhat larger, 

 and especially stouter, spicules, which measure, when full-grown, about 0-38 by 

 0-025 mm. 



Previously known Distribution. Gulf of Mannar, Ceylon Seas (Bowerbank, 

 Dendy) ; Red Sea (Row). 



Register Number, Locality, <&c. II. 7, Poshetra Head, 7.1.06. 



29. Auletta lyrata var. glomerata Dendy. (Plate II., Fig. 16). 



Spongia lyrata Esper [1794-1806]. 

 Raspaigella lyrata Ehlers [1870]. 

 Auletta aurantiaca Dendy [1889]. 

 Auletta lyrata var. glomerata Dendy [1905]. 



The single specimen (Fig. 16) in the collection agrees very closely in general 

 form with the type of the variety. The strongly sphinctrate vents are situated 

 each in a cup-shaped depression at the extremity of a short branch. The average 

 thickness of the spicules is, however, much greater than in the type of the 

 variety. 



The species of the genus Aiiletta are evidently extremely variable both in 

 external form and spiculation, and it will be extremely difficult to differentiate 

 them from one another. 



Previously known Distribution of Species. Ceylon, Gulf of Mannar (Esper, 

 Dendy). 



Register Number, Locality, &c. III. 3, off Dwarka. 



30. Auletta elongata Dendy var. fruticosa nov. (Plate II., Fig. 17). 



Auletta elongata Dendy [1905]. 



The single specimen (Fig. 17) differs from the type in its much more spreading 

 mode of branching and in the considerably smaller average size of the spicules. 

 Previously known Distribution of Species. Ceylon, Gulf of Mannar (Dendy). 

 Register Number, Locality, &c. XXIII. 2, off Dwarka, 15-17 fms., 12.12.05. 



31. Ciocalypta dichotoma n. sp. (Plate III., Fig. 18). 



The single specimen (Fig. 18) consists of a cylindrical stem dividing at half 

 the total height of the specimen into two approximately equal branches diverging 

 from one another at an acute angle. Each branch terminates in a bluntly pointed 

 apex. The base of the stem is slightly enlarged and attached to it are a few 

 grains of coarse sand and a comparatively large shell-fragment, which seem to 

 indicate that the stem was directly attached to the substratum and did not 

 spring from a massive body. The surface is stellately reticulate as in Ciocalypta 

 hyaloderma Ridley and Dendy [1887], though hardly so distinctly. There is a 



