THE SPONGES OF THE WEST-CENTRAL PACIFIC 67 



Reniclona permollis (Bowerbank) de Laubenfels 



Text Figure No. 38 



This species is here represented by the following : 

 U.S.N.M. 23035, My No. M. 414, collected July 30, 1949, by diver in the 



lagoon in northwest Ponape. The depth was 2 meters, and the substrate 



was dead coral. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 23060, My No. M. 440, collected August 3, 1949, by diver 



in southwest Ponape (Kiti) in the lagoon near Toletik Islet. The depth 



was 4 meters, and the substrate was a living sponge of the genus 



Neopetrosia. 



The shape is incrusting with a vertical measurement of less than 1 cm 

 but with indefinite lateral spread. A width of at least 15 cm is reached. 



The color in life was between lavender and drab, the latter portions being 

 perhaps pathological. The interior had the same color as the exterior. The 

 consistency was softly spongy ; and, upon being collected, the sponge exuded 

 some slime. 



The surface is more or less level but obviously punctiform. The items 

 visible to the naked eye are skeletal pores about 500 /x in diameter, containing 

 each a number of perforations in a membrane (the perforations probably 

 representing the real pores, which are in this case 50 /x to 100 /x in diameter). 

 The oscules are very few in number and characterized by quite a noticeable 

 rim. Their diameter ranges from 2 to 4 mm. 



There is the usual lack of ectosome, and the endosome is an isodictyal 

 reticulation of spicules, with rather scanty protoplasmic structures. 



The skeleton consists of oxeas, about 5 /x by 135 ti in dimensions. A 

 few that are thinner are probably juvenile forms. 



The second Ponape specimen was gray to drab when collected. Upon 

 histological examination, it proved to have been moribund. In other respects, 

 it agreed quite closely with- No. M. 414. 



Text Figure No. 38. Four of the spicules (oxea) of Reniclona permollis, X 781. 



(Specimen M. 440). 



