SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES to the REPORT on SPONGES 

 PROM THE COASTAL BEACHES op NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By Thomas Whitelegge, Zoologist. 



A considerable time after the Report was printed off, Professor 

 Arthur Dendy offered to the Trustees of the Australian Museum 

 the loan of a large collection of fragments of sponges, from which 

 sections might be obtained. The specimens were selected and 

 labelled by R. Kirkpatrick, of the British Museum, from examples 

 acquired by that institution from Dr. R. von Lendenfeld. The 

 collection embraces 478 specimens, representing 462 species. All 

 — except about six — are from Australasian waters. A large per- 

 centage of the examples are species described as new by Dr. R. 

 von Lendenfeld ; the rest consist of species identified by him, 

 and others which bear what I presume are manuscript names. 

 These fragments add very largely to the Museum collection, and if 

 the species prove valid, to the known fauna of New South Wales. 

 By this donation, the Museum gains five species enumerated in the 

 "Catalogue of Sponges," which have hitherto been wanting in the 

 collection (two of these are therein described as new) and which 

 practically complete the specimens as published in the Catalogue. 

 Of the 295 .species and varieties described in the latter work, 156 

 are represented in this collection. Some of these are evidently 

 bits of the types now on exhibition in the Invertebrate Gallery. 



In 1887, Dr. R. von Lendenfeld published a paper in the 

 Zoologische Jahrbiicher, under the title of "Die chalineen des 

 Australischen Gebietes."' In this paper 183 species and varieties 

 are described ; 144 of these are represented in the collection 

 presented by Professor Dendy. 



It is highly probable that the greater part of these fragments 

 are portions of the types ; the localities in nearly every instance 

 agree with the habitat given at the end of each description. 

 Eight examples bear the word " type " on the label ; these are, 

 however, mostly calcareous sponges. 



This extremely valuable collection affords material which ex- 

 plains some of the ill-defined species in the Lendenfeldian collection, 

 and also adds largely to the number of uncertainties. With the 

 latter I hope to deal in the near future, and the former are herein 



1 Lendenfeld— Zool. Jahrb., Bd. ii., 1887, pp. 723-828. 



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