BY R. VON LENDENFELD, PH.D. 283 



11. FAMILIA SPONGID^. F. E. Schulze. (1) 



Ciliated chambers small and hemispherical to spherical. Com- 

 munication of inhalent lacunse with the chambers by means of 

 numerous pores in the latter. Communication of the exhalent 

 canals and lacunae with the chambers by means of wide pores or 

 canals. Fibres forming a network. Granular axis of fibres very 

 thin. The main (radial) fibres often contain foreign bodies. 

 Numerous granules are usually present in the gallert around the 

 chambers and render that part of it more or less intransparent. 



I. SUB-FAiMILIA AULENIN.^. R. v. Lendenfeld. (2) 



Spongidse, the body of which forms a reticulation of fibres or 

 lamellae of a honeycomb-like structure. The lacunae in the intervals 

 are either simple or traversed by membranes, but in any case 

 appear as a kind of vestibule, inasmuch as the outer surface of the 

 fibres and lamellae mentioned above is homologous to the outer 

 surface of other sponges. These lacunae belong neither to the 

 inhalent nor the exhalent canal system, and both these systems 

 open into them indiscriminately. 



The free parts of the surface are often protected by thick layers 

 of sand forming a dermal layer, which in some cases can be pulled 

 oft' intact (Halme.) 



The skeleton consists of very slender and transparent connecting 

 fibres, which are free from foreign bodies, and thick radial fibres with 

 uneven surface, filled with sand, &c. ; or there are no such "main" 

 fibres at all, and we find at the joining jioints of some of the 

 ordinary slender fibres, large grains of sand. (Aulena fig. 21.) 



The ciliated chambers are very small and spherical. 



(1) F. E. Schulze. Untersuchungea iiber den Ban und die Entwickehing 

 der 8pongien VII., Mittlieilung ; die Familie der Spongidse. Zeitschrift 

 fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, Band XXXII., Seite 593. 



(2) Aulenino'. Name derived from the genus Aulena, Greek root. See 

 below under " Aulena." 



