ART. 4 



SPONGES OF CALIFORNIA de LAUBENFEL.S 



53 



average smaller and in being normally red or white rather than 

 golden. 



Lambe, 1892 (p. 71), described Suherites latus from the west 

 coast of Canada. In 1894 (p. 127), he redescribed his specimens, 

 identifying them as Suherites suberea Johnston. Since our Califor- 

 nian specimens agree with his in having consistently larger average 

 size of spicules than the British form, it seems wise to retain 

 Lambe's original designation as subspecific. Topsent in 1900 re- 

 ferred Lambe's species to FicuUna. 



Suherites dates from Nardo (1833, p. 523), and was based on 

 domunculus of Olivi, a well-known Mediterranean form. FicuUna 

 dates from Gray (1867, p. 523), and was based on fcu^^ a well-known 

 British form. The name ficus was employed by Pallas (1766, 

 about 13. 356), but his description and locality reference show clearly 



o 





o 



Q 



flO fif! 



FiGDEB 25.^ — FimUhui stiherea (Jolinston) lata (Lambe), X300. Three 

 complete typical spicules, and the heads of nine others to illustrate vari- 

 ations, are shown 



that he referred by the name both to domunculus and the British 

 form. See also Linnaeus, 1767 (p. 1295). The first species name 

 that I find clearly applicable to the British sponge is suherea Mon- 

 tagu, 1818. The literature separates FicuUna from Suherites 

 chiefly by the peculiar microscleres (centrotylote microstrongyles) 

 of FicuUna^ but these are so very frequently not in evidence that I 

 made a careful study based on fresh material at Plymouth (of 

 suherea) and at Naples (of domunculus) to obtain as much data as 

 possible on their distinction in the absence of microscleres. I will 

 tabulate some such distinctions : 



1. C&nsistency. — All 16 of my specimens, undoubtedly suherea, 

 shrunk notably on drying; none of my four domunculus did. Con- 

 sistencies in life and in spirits were otherwise very similar between 

 the two species. 



2. Color. — My observations and the literature show the ordinary 

 color range of domumculus to be from white to vermilion, with 



