THE PHORIOSPONGI^. Marshall. 

 By R. von Lendenfeld, Ph.D. 



In the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, Vol. 35, p. 

 122-126, W. Marshall describes two Sponges as representatives 

 of the new Genus Pboriospongia, which is characterized as Sponges 

 containing a large amount of foreign particles, sand, etc., and 

 also possessing siliceous spicules of the monactinellid type. 



Both species have been obtained from Tasmania. 



Marshall (I.e.) refers to a few British Sponges described by 

 Bowerbank and others and also to an Australian one described by 

 Gray, all of which contain foreign bodies, sand, etc., besides spicules. 



He is inclined to consider all these Sponges, described by himself 

 and others, as boring Sponges which however do not live in rocks 

 or shells as the true Vioa, but which live in sand. They perforate 

 the sand in all dii-ections and so produce a mass similar to a 

 Sponge and containing both the spicule of the Sponge and the 

 sand in which the Sponge took up its abode. 



In my extensive collections of Australian Sponges I have not 

 only found the species described by Marshall, again, but I have 

 also found a number of other species hitherto not described, which 

 all possess flesh-spicules and appear nearly related to the Phorio- 

 spongise. In a paper published in these Proceedings (Vol. IX.,) 

 by Die last year, I drew attention to the fact that " flesh-spicules " 

 were sometimes found in Sponges which possess an ordinary 

 horny skeleton without siliceous spicules. Based on this discovery 

 is my subdivision of the families of Ceraospongia into sub-families 

 with and without flesh-spicules. 



Up till now I have found in all eleven species of Sponges which 

 should in consequence of the structure of their fibrous skeleton be 

 placed among the Ceraospongiae, and possess flesh-spicules. With 



/ 



