204 LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Amphilectus incrustans, Johnston. 



Haliclwndria incrustans, Johnston. 

 Halichondria saburrata, Johnston. 

 Halichondria panicea, Grant. 

 Desmacidon incrustans, Schmidt. 



This species seems to be of world-wide distribution. 

 Higgin* states that it has been found in the West Indies 

 and Falklands Islands ; Bowerbank f records it from Frith 

 of Forth, Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetland Islands, Welsh 

 and Irish Coasts, Channel Islands, and Hastings. Further, 

 it has been previously collected in two parts of our district, 

 at Port Erin and Holyhead, and now I am able to add 

 also Puffin Island to the list. 



This sponge has been described or mentioned by Grant, 

 Johnston, Bowerbank, Carter, and Higgin under the genus 

 Halichondria. But Oscar Schmidt recognized that it, to- 

 gether with eighteen other of Bowerbank's species oi Hali- 

 chondria, belongs to the Desmacidonidee, and accordingly, 

 in my " Second Keport," &c., I called this sponge Desma- 

 cidon incrustans. However, as I intend to follow Ridley 

 and Dendy's principles of classification as far as possible 

 and to accept their definitions of genera, I find it now 

 necessary to remove our species to the genus Amphilectus, 

 Vosmaer, t also one of the Desmacidonidse. In doing so 

 I think it advisable to repeat what Ridley an'S Dendy say 

 in regard to this genus : — '' We make use of this genus in 

 the manner indicated by its founder, namely, as a pro- 

 visional receptacle for a number of doubtful Desmaci- 

 donidse. "§ 



* Higgin, " Report on the Porifera," in " Fanna of Liverpool Bay," p. 84. 

 t Bowerbank, ' British Spongiadne," vol. ii., p. 249. 



% For delinition of the genns A mphHectus see Vosmaer, ' ' Notes from the 

 Leyden Mnseum'" vol. ii,, p. 109. 



§ Ridley and Dendy, "Report on the Monaxonida collected by H.M.S, 

 Challenger,'" p. 123, 



