94 THE SPONGES OF THE WEST-CENTRAL PACIFIC 



There is little or no ectosome, and the endosome is a confused mass. 



The skeleton consists of megascleres and microscleres. The former are 

 oxeas 4 /x by 154 /x in dimensions. The latter include conspicuous and numer- 

 ous palmate anisochelas, 42 p long. There are a number of other microscleres 

 present, but some are obviously foreign. The thin raphides, 90 p long, and 

 some sigmas, 32 p in chord length, may be proper. One or two toxas, 46 p 

 long, were observed, but these were almost certainly foreign. 



This species is very distinctive for the small size of its megascleres. In 

 other species of the genus, they are usually three or four times as thick and 

 five or six times as long. 



The species name selected calls attention to the resemblance to the genus 

 Carmia, rather than to other species already in Oxymycale. 



Oxymycale strongylophora, new 



Text Figure No. 57 



This species is here represented by the following : 

 U.S.N.M. No. 22937, My No. M. 307, here designated as type, collected 

 June 20, 1949, by diver at Ailing-lap-lap Atoll in the channel beside 

 Bikajela Island. The depth was 10 meters, and the substrate was dead 

 coral. 



The shape is amorphous, obviously extremely cavernous. The vertical 

 measurement is 2 cm and the diameter 5 cm. 



The exterior and interior color in life was red-orange to orange-red. It 

 has kept the color astonishingly well during preservation in alcohol ; red 

 colors very often dissolve out into the spirits. The consistency was slightly 

 spongy but fragile, breaking easily. 



The surface is undulatory, the pores promptly close, and the oscules do 

 not show. 



The ectosome is characterized by a fairly large amount of spicule, but 

 scarcely enough to be called a special spicule dermal skeleton. The endosome 

 is extremely cavernous, permeated by spicular tracts. 



The skeleton consists of little or no spongin but numerous megascleres 

 in tracts of such size that per each cross-section there are about 16 spicules. 

 These are strongyles 11 p by 570 p. The microscleres are numerous and 

 conspicuous. There are huge palmate anisochelas with the palmate structure 

 so ill developed that they are almost arcuate; these are 120 p long. Others 

 of more typical shape are 25 p long, and those of still a third category are 

 only 15 p long. There are huge sigmas, 120 p in chord length, another 

 category 35 p, and a smaller category 20 p in chord length. There are also 

 very fine raphides, arranged in trichodragmas. These are about 50 p long. 



By definition this species obviously belongs in the family Desmacidonidae, 

 but its closest relatives are obviously not in that family, but instead with 



