PORIFERA. II. 65 



The chelae are found in very great numbers, and especially the dermal membrane is closely filled with 

 them; forcipes are few in number, and occur chiefly at the top of the sponge. 



Embryos. Also in this sponge embryos are found in most specimens and in very great numbers. 

 They are situated in cavities in the tissue. The)- are very varying in size, from 0-05 — o-23 mm . The 

 larger ones are provided with both megascleres and microscleres. The megascleres are styli which are 

 straight or more or less curved. They reach a length of cri6 mm . According to the stage of development 

 of the embryo they are of different thickness, from rather fine ones to ca. croo7 mm at the upper end. 

 The megascleres seem to appear first, as in the smaller embryos with fine styli no chelae were seen. 

 The styli are collected into a bundle reaching almost quite through the embryo, some of them have 

 the point turned one way, some the other way. When the embryonic styli are somewhat curved, they 

 remind very much of the curved styli occurring in the lower part of the stalk of the sponge, but they 

 do not reach the size of these latter 1 ). The chelae of the embryos are here of the same size as those 

 of the grown sponge, only in a few cases they seemed to be a trifle smaller. In the smallest embryos 

 no spicules were found. Levinseu thinks that in this species a formation of buds takes place in 

 the point of the lateral branches. I am inclined to think that the question is of embryos leaving the 

 sponge through the lateral branches, which, as before mentioned, perhaps act as oscula. I have not 

 seen embryos lying in the branches, but they are often seen lying at their base, and in some cases 

 they were found hanging at the very point of the branches. 



This species, which by Levinsen I.e. has been established as a variety, is, besides by other 

 characters, also by its spicules, as well megascleres as both forms of microscleres, separated from the 

 preceding one in a constant and sure way. Levinsen's statement, that the styli are longer and finer 

 than in the preceding species, is not quite correct; they are longer, to be sure, but at the same time 

 they reach a greater thickness. Armauer Hansen's figures quoted above, I suppose to belong to this 

 species. As mentioned under the preceding species I have been able to decide by an examination of 

 a type-specimen that one of the specimens of Espcrclla Fristedtii mentioned by Lam be belongs to 

 this species, viz. the specimen with longer and thicker styli and smaller chelae. Thus Lambe's 

 species E. Fristedtii must be dropped. 



Locality: By the Ingolf Expedition the species has been taken on station 44, 6i° 42' Lat. N., 9 36' 

 Long. W., depth 545 fathoms; station 143, 62° 58' Lat. N., 7 09' Long.W., depth 388 fathoms (bottom tempe- 

 rature -t-o°4C); we have it further from the following localities: 6i° 30' Lat. N., 4 26' Long.W., depth 505 

 fathoms (bottom temperature -j- o°4 C.) (Wandel); 70 32' Lat. N., 8° 10' Long. W., depth 470 fathoms (the 

 East Greenland Exp. 1890—91); 62 40' Lat. N., i° 56' Long. E., depth 365 fathoms (bottom temperature 

 -=-o°3C); 6o° 09' Lat. N., 5 22' Long.W., depth 620 fathoms (bottom temperature -j-o°i5C.) (Ad. Jensen, the 

 cruise of the «Michael Sars 1902). Nine specimens have been taken in all. The localities are situated 

 east and west of the Faroe Islands, west of the Shetland Islands, between the Faroe Islands and Nor- 

 way, and south of Jan Mayen. 



Geogr. disfr. The Kara Sea, depths 51 — 81 fathoms (Levinsen), the Baffin Bay, depth 130 fa- 



■) As these sponges are most frequently highly filled with embryos, it will generally be the fact, that embryonic spi- 

 cules are found in the spicula-preparatious, and by judging of the spiculatiou attention must be paid to this fact. 



The Injolf-Expedition VI. 2. q 



