274 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



NOTES ON LENDENFELD'S TYPES DESCRIBED in the 



CATALOGUE OF SPONGES in the AUSTRALIAN 



MUSEUM. 



By Thomas Whitelegge, Zoologist. 



Recent investigations have demonstrated that a large proportion 

 of the descriptions contained in the " Catalogue of Sponges " are 

 inaccurate, and also that the names attached to some of the 

 exhibited types are calculated to mislead rather than assist the 

 inquiring student. Under the circumstances I have been urged 

 to undertake a revision of the species described in the above- 

 mentioned work. The task is beset with many difficulties, some- 

 what thankless in its nature, and far from being agreeable. In 

 the interest of science it is highly necessary that such a revision 

 should be immediately instituted, in order to prevent further 

 confusion in the nomenclature of our sponge fauna. In under- 

 taking this revision I am fully cognisant of the difficulties 

 presented. In order to render the work reliable, I resolved to 

 examine all the material available, and to take nothing for 

 granted. The course pursued is the same as that adopted in the 

 Report on Sponges from the Coastal Beaches of New South Wales,^ 

 i.e., to ascertain the whole of the characters of any given specimen 

 before consulting the description, notwithstanding the fact that 

 many of the specimens were obviously wrongly named. In almost 

 every case at least two or more sections have been examined, the 

 spicules measured in situ, and in doubtful specimens the spicules 

 have been boiled out and carefully measured in the free condition. 

 It is rather a peculiar coincidence that so many of the wrongly 

 identified examples should bear such appropriate specific names. 

 A few instances will serve to illustrate this point. Thus there 

 are two specimens labelled Placochalina pedunculata, var. mollis, 

 these upon examination proved to be (1) Chalina palmata and (2) 

 Clathria tenuifibra. The first named consists of a series of flat 

 lamelke, which are intricately folded, and the specimen bears the 

 manuscript name of Placochalina reticulata. The second form 



1 Whitelegge— Rec. Aust. Mus., iv., 2, 1901. 



