122 The Irish Naturalist, 



THE FRESH-WATBR SPONGES OF IREEAND, 



WITH REMARKS ON THE GENERA!^ DISTRIBUTION OF THE GROUP. 



BY R. HANITSCH, PH. D. 



[Pirate 4-] 

 Thk following short account of Irish Fresh-water Sponges is 

 based chiefly upon a small collection which I received last 

 autumn from Dr. R. F. Scharff, Science and Art Museum, 

 Dublin. The examination of the material gave such unex- 

 pected results, that I gladly accepted Dr. Scharff's invitation 

 to publish the same in the Irish Natur^alist. 



According to Weltner (13 & 14), the Fauna of Europe com- 

 prises seven species of Spongillidse, viz : — 



Euspongilla lacusiris, Autt. 

 Spo}igilla fragilis, IvCidy. 

 Trochospongilla horrida^ WeUner. 

 Ephydatia Mi'dleri, L/ieberktihn. 

 Ephydatia JJuviatilis, Autt. 

 Ephydatia bohe??iica, Petr. 

 Carterius Stepanowi, Dybowsky. 



To these we have to add Heteromeye^iia repens, Potts, of which 

 Wierzejski (15, p. 143) discovered some free floating gemmules 

 in a pond in Galizia. The same species is enumerated by 

 Petr (6, p. 18) in his recent paper on European Spongillidae. 

 The article, however, being written in Bohemian, I am unable 

 to say whether he gives additional data regarding the 

 occurrence of that species. Out of Weltner's list the first five 

 — and no others — occur in Germany (Weltner, 18, pp. 210-220) 

 and France (Topsent, 8, p. 176). But Ephydatia bohemica has 

 been found in Bohemia only, and Carterius Stepa^iozvi, near 

 Charkow in Russia, in Bohemia, Hungary, and Galizia 

 (Wierzejski, 15, p. 143). Russia possesses six species (viz., 

 Weltner's seven species with the exception of E. bohemica), 

 although Traxler (10), in quite a recent paper, enumerates 

 only four species from Northern Russia : — 



Euspongilla lacustHs. 

 Spongilla fragilis. 

 Meyenia {—Ephydatia) Mdlleri, 

 Trochospongilla horrida. 



