168 THE SPONGES OF THE WEST-CENTRAL PACIFIC 



The color in life was obscured by the foreign material so that the field 

 notes regularly say "dirty," "dirty-drab," or "dirty-white." One may specu- 

 late that the sponge if really clean would be pale gray or nearly white. The 

 interior is about the same as the exterior, except that some specimens show 

 a slightly ochre or yellowish tint to the interior whereas other specimens do 

 not. The consistency in life was woody, cork-like, or like wet cardboard. 

 The latter is perhaps the most graphic description. 



The surface is uneven and almost always obscured by mud. In a few 

 places where such was not the case, it would seem to be sparsely hispid. Dili- 

 gent search disclosed no pores. With the mass of the sponge so deeply 

 buried, it seems problematical that pores would be effective in the usual 

 location. Can it be that some of the large openings, ostensibly oscules, may 

 have been really inhalant, as others were exhalant? The oscules are from 



5 to 8 mm in diameter, by the inside measurement of the tubes or chimneys. 

 The latter may rise as much as 5 to 10 cm above the main mass of the sponge 

 (well above the sand or mud) and are quite common, often only 2 cm apart. 



The ectosome is characterized by a mass of tangent dermal spicules and 

 in some cases also by erect additional spicules. The interior, in a few cases, 

 shows arrangement into tracts, but often is a mass of spicules and flesh per- 

 meated by ramifying canals. 



The skeleton does contain occasional tracts as much as 360 /.l in diameter 

 but is mostly a profuse abundance of felted spicules. The megascleres are 

 smooth styles, often somewhat curved, and upwards of 30 n by 120 /x. 

 Smaller forms, probably developmental, do occur. The microscleres include 

 sigmas of two sizes. The larger may be as much as 92 fi in chord length and 



6 (i in diameter. The smaller category range from 17 ju, to 21 /x in length 

 and are very thin, about 0.5 fi in diameter. There also are present exceed- 

 ingly abundant trichodragmas and masses of wisp-like raphides, about 0.3 /j. 

 in diameter and 70 p, to 100 ^ long. 



This species was first described as Desmacella fortis by Topsent 1897, 

 page 463, from the East Indies. Burton in 1930, page 521, correctly trans- 

 ferred it to the genus Biemna and extended its range to the Red Sea. 



Biemna mnioeis, new 



Text Figure No. 110 



This species is here represented by the following: 

 U.S.N.M. No. 23065, My No. M. 445, here designated as type, collected 

 August 3, 1949, by diver in the southwest portion of Ponape, province 

 of Kiti, from a reef in the lagoon. The depth was 3 meters, and the 

 substrate was dead coral. 



This is an irregular mass 3 by 3 by 6 cm in outside dimensions. 



