240 



THE SPONGES OF THE WEST-CENTRAL PACIFIC 



This species was first described as Stelletta purpurea by Ridley, 1884, 

 page 473, from the East Indies. Burton in 1926, page 44, and following, 

 reduces a very large number of other species names of Myriastra into 

 synonymy with purpurea, thus tending to show that it is a cosmopolitan or at 

 least circumequatorial species. It may be that some of these names were 

 unduly reduced in synonymy, but certainly most of them are correctly allo- 

 cated by Burton. The species is definitely abundant throughout the Indian 

 Ocean, Australian, East Indian, and Pacific regions in general. 



FAMILY CRANIELLIDAE de Laubenfels 



GENUS CINACHYRA Sollas 



Cinachyra porosa (Lendenfeld) Burton 



Text Figure No. 165 

 Plate XI, Figure b 



This species is here represented by the following: 



U.S.N.M. No. 23138, My No. M. 522, collected September 15, 1949, by 

 diver in southwest Saipan inside the reef offshore from Charan Kanoa 

 Village. It was common there, but absent elsewhere. The depth was 2 

 meters, and the substrate was sand. This species was also found in the 

 middle of the west shore of Guam, at Dungas Bay, September 20, 1949. 



U.S.N.M. No. 22914, My No. M. 219, collected September 1, 1949, by diver 

 in Iwayama Bay, Koror, in the Palaus. This was in muddy water near 

 mangroves at a depth of between 1 and 2 meters, and the sponges were 

 not attached, but lying loose on the bottom. 



This species is subspherical, 3 or 4 cm thick and about 6 cm in diameter. 



The color in life was dirty yellow on the exterior and bright yellow in 

 the interior. The consistency was cartilaginous. 



The surface is strongly hispid with projecting spicules thickly placed 

 over the entire exterior, extending 4 to 5 mm beyond the surface of the 



Text Figure No. 165. Spicules of Cinachyra porosa. A: Cladome of anatriaene, X 182. 

 B: Cladome of prodiaene, X 182. C: Outer end (among cladomes) of oxea, X 182. 

 D: Inner end of oxea, or of the rhabd of any sort of triaene or diaene, X 182. E: Five of 



the sigmaspires, X 782. 



