40 THE SPONGES OF THE WEST-CENTRAL PACIFIC 



U.S.N.M. No. 23016, My No. M. 396, collected July 13, 1949, by diver at 



Likiep Atoll at the south side of the lagoon near Eotli Islet. The depth 



was 5 meters, and the substrate was dead coral. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 22957, My No. M. 331, collected June 28, 1949, by diver at 



Majuro Atoll at the east end of the lagoon near Rita (or Jarej) Islet. 



The depth was 4 meters, and the substrate was dead coral. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 22992, My No. M. 370, collected July 7, 1949, by diver at 



Ebon Atoll at the southeast side of the lagoon. The depth was 2 meters, 



and the substrate was dead coral. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 23027, My No. M. 406, collected July 30, 1949, by diver in 



northwestern Ponape in the central part of the lagoon. The depth was 



5 meters, and the substrate was dead coral. 



This species was abundant at Likiep, common at Majuro, uncommon and 

 atypical at Ebon and apparently absent from Ailing-lap-lap. In the Carolines, 

 I found only the one specimen and that at Ponape. 



This species is consistently a mass with irregular projections. The 

 Ebon specimen was merely incrusting but may have been juvenile or not in 

 healthy condition. 



The color was distinctive. The exterior was regularly purple. The 

 above-mentioned incrusting specimen was also purple on the interior, but 

 this was due to its small size. All the other specimens showed a strikingly 

 different interior color. In the Majuro specimen, the interior was merely 

 drab ; in the very abundant specimens throughout Likiep, some were yellow, 

 some were green, and a very few were intermediate. The one specimen 

 from Ponape was intermediate, that is to say, yellow-green. The consistency 

 was spongy but not like that of other specimens of the genus Dysidea. In- 

 stead it was rather like specimens of the genus Verongia. It had a somewhat 

 cheese-like consistency, easily sliced, due to the comparatively dense proto- 

 plasmic structures and the rather thin, widely separated fibers. 



The surface is conulose, of a very distinctive type. The projections do 

 not come to a peak, as is typical of conules. In fact, another word perhaps 



^^FP? 



' j '. ' ' ' . t ' • - • - . . • * . 



Text Figure No. 21. Portion of the fiber of Dysidea rhax, X 182. 



