^^^ >-l 1902 



REPORT ON SPONGES prom thr COASTAL BEACHES op 

 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By Thomas Whitelegge, Zoologist. 



Introductory Note. 



[In August of last year (1900), the Trustees received from the 

 Fishery Commissioners a very large donation of Sponges from 

 the coast of New South Wales. The collection was made by the 

 various Inspectors of Fisheries stationed on the sea-board, and the 

 object in view was to ascertain the number suitable for commercial 

 purposes, or that might be rendered suitable by cultivation. 



After Mr. Whitelegge had made a preliminary examination, I 

 became so convinced of the high importance of the suggested 

 investigation, that I recommended he should discontinue the work 

 on which he was at the time engaged — the description of the 

 Crustacea of the "Thetis" Trawling Expedition, in itself a highly 

 important piece of work — and solely confine his attention, for the 

 time being, to the elaboration of the Sponges in question; this 

 was at once approved of. 



Throughout his labours I was kept well informed of the 

 difficulties Mr. Whitelegge encountered, and on several occasions 

 have consulted with him on intricate and debatable points. To 

 arrive at anything like a satisfactory result, no other method than 

 that adopted by him would have been successful. At the inception 

 of the undertaking neither of us for a moment foresaw the amount 

 of labour or trouble that the investigation would entail, through 

 the unsatisfactory nature of previous researches on the Sponges of 

 New South Wales.— R.E., Jnr.] 



The collection consists of about six hundred and thirty specimens ; 

 of these forty belonged to the commercial class, representing about 

 twelve species and varieties, seven of which may be regarded as 

 having an economic value. 



In Dr. von Lendenfeld's Monograph of the Horny Sponges,^ there 

 are sixty-one species and varieties enumerated under the genera 

 Euspongia and Hippospongia, both of which furnish the sponges 

 of commerce. Of the sixty-one forms, thirty-five are recoi'ded as 

 occurring in Australasian waters, and seventeen of these are 

 recorded for New South Wales; the remainder are chiefly confined 



1 Lendenfeld— Mon. Horny Sponges, 1889. 

 A 



