BY E. F. IIALLMANN. 429 



stated to attain, there would be justification for regarding the lat- 

 ter species as synonymous partly with the former (which would 

 then have to be called Ttaspailia ohtusa) and partly with Axinella 

 in flat a. 



Spirophorella digitata. 



In the absence of a type-specimen, it is impossible to speak with 

 certainty regarding this species; but there are peculiar circum- 

 stances surrounding it, which justify the suspicion that some 

 serious mistake in connection therewith has been made. In the 

 first place, one is at a loss to understand why a new genus was 

 introduced for its reception, for, apart from the fact that Carter 

 had some years previously proposed the genus Trachyeladus for a 

 species with essentially similar spiculation, Lendenfeld, in his 

 paper on the Australian Chalininse — published just immediately in 

 advance of the Catalogue — had himself already proposed a genus 

 Spirophora, whose definition and that of Spirophorella are virtu- 

 ally identical. Besides this, the identity of Spirophora with 

 Trachyeladus had been pointed out by Dendy, in his criticism of 

 the paper above referred to, prior to the publication of the Cata- 

 logue. If it be suggested, in explanation, that Lendenfeld must 

 have considered the slight differences to be of generic value which 

 he ascribed to the species respectively assigned by him to Spiro- 

 phora and to Spirophorella, the further question needs to be 

 answered as to why he referred the two genera to different families, 

 and having done so, why he has omitted, in his remarks on the lat- 

 ter, to make any reference whatsoever to the former, while yet 

 deeming it of sufficient importance to observe that Spirophorella 

 "appears very similar to Spiretta" — a Tetractinellid genus having 

 no other special point of agreement with the genus in question than 

 the possession of spiral microscleres. One cannot suppose that the 

 idea of a relationship between his species of Spirophora and Spiro- 

 phorella did not occur* to Lendenfeld, since evidently the one 

 generic name is coined from the other; and, furthermore, it would 

 seem as if he shortlv afterwards decided to regard the two genera 



