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4. Note on the Occurrence of the Enplectellid Sponge Regadrella 

 phoenix 0. Schmidt, off the South African Coast. By E. 

 KIKKPATEICK. 



(Plate I.) 

 [Printed by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.] 



DR. L. PERINGUEY, Director of the South African Museum, has 

 recently sent to the Natural History Museum, London, for identifi- 

 cation, two portions of specimens and a photograph of a more 

 complete example of the Euplectellid sponge Regadrella phoenix 

 0. Schmidt, dredged from a depth of 250-320 fathoms off Cape 

 Morgan, near East London, Cape Colony ; bottom broken shells. 



The original examples of the sponge, which were described by 

 Oscar Schmidt in " Die Spongien des Meerbusen von Mexico," came 

 from Barbados (221 and 228 fms.), and Sta Cruz (248 fms.). He 

 called the genus " Regadrella ' ' after the Spanish name for a 

 watering-pot, and the species "phoenix," because he found young 

 sponges growing on and within the basal part of old dead ones. 



In Regadrella the strands of spicules which form the lattice-like 

 skeleton of the tube run mainly in a longitudinal direction and some- 

 what irregularly. In Euplectclla, on the other hand, the framework 

 is formed of regularly arranged longitudinal and transverse and 

 oblique strands. 



In Regadrella, the spathulate ends of the secondary rays of the 

 beautiful little floricorne spicules, are prolonged into several sharp 

 claw-like spines. 



A characteristic flesh-spicule of the pi'esent species is the 

 onychaster, a hexaster with fine claw-like spines at the ends of 

 the secondary rays. 



The well-marked sieve-plate is surrounded by a fringe of bristles 

 formed by the distal rays of stout hexactins. 



Specimens grow firmly fixed on rocks and stones, and do not form 

 a root-tuft such as Euplectella possesses. 



