AKT. 12 HEXACTINELLID SPONGES — OKADA 51 



Family APHROCALLISTIDAE J. E. Gray, 1858 

 Genus APHROCALLISTES J. E. Gray, 1858 



APHROCALLISTES BEATRIX ORIENTALIS Ijima 



Plate 4, Figure 1 



AphrocoUistes heatrix orientalis Ijima, Annot. Zool. Japon., vol. 9, pt. 2, pp. 

 173-182, 1916. 



Many complete colonies and fragments that may be identified as 

 A. h. orientoJis Ijima were obtained from the several stations men- 

 tioned in Table 14, all of which, except Station 5092, are close 

 tofrether. In these specimens I have found certain differences in 

 spiculation from the type specimens. In specimens D, the macro- 

 scleres and microscleres show a comparatively much more delicate 

 form than those of the typical species. The distal ray of the dermal 

 pinules, especially, is slender and is provided with weak lateral 

 spines. Furthermore, the oxyhexasters also have much slenderer 

 terminals. In the parenchymal regions of these sponges I have 

 occasionally found hexactins of variable sizes, which may be of some 

 consequence in the formation of the dictyonal framework. 



Table 14. — Record of specimens of Aphrocallistes beatrix orientalis 



Specimens 



Collected at— 



A Station 4890, 10-12 miles SW. of Goto Islands, 135 fathoms. 



B. 



Station 4894, 10-12 miles SW. of Goto Islands, 95 fathoms... 



C j Station 4895, 10-12 miles SW. of Goto Islands, 95 fathoms... 



D 1 Station 4934, ofi Kagoshima Gulf, 153 fathoms.. 



E 1 Station 4937, in Kagoshima Gulf, 5S fathoms 



F 1 Station 5092, entrance of Uraga Channel, 70 fathoms 



Number and description 



Three, nearly complete; seven 



fragments. 

 Small macerated dry frag 



ments. 

 Two, macerated. 

 Two, macerated and injured. 

 Four, macerated and injured. 

 One, macerated. 



Specimens A are fine and uninjured. The fully developed form 

 is a tube gradually widening upward, with numerous radial glove- 

 fingerlike swellings on the lateral walls. The axis of the entire tube, 

 which may attain a length of 87 mm or more, as a rule has a slight 

 curvature. The inferior extremity, which is firmly attached to the 

 substratum, has the form of short peduncles, which are 5 mm to 7 

 mm in breadth. The length of these diverticula, which always end 

 in a small circular osculum, as measured on the outer end of the tube, 

 is in most cases 9 mm, but gradually decreases in the middle and 

 upper parts to a length varying from 3 mm to 5 mm. Very fre- 

 quently much elongated diverticula occur here and there at a distance 

 above the base. These are bent obliquely downward, occasionally 



