398 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



RENIERA IMPLEXA Schmidt, var. BAERI, new variety. 



Reniera implexa Schmidt, 1868, p. 27. — Baeb, 1906. p. 13, pi. 1, fig.8 ; pi. 4, 

 figs. 15-17. 



One specimen, from a tide pool, San Pascual, Burias Island 



Sponge consists of a clump of about 30 tubes, which arise from a 

 common amorphous basal portion, itself attached to a clump of 

 slender stony phloeodictyine fistulae, perhaps belonging to Phloeo- 

 dictyon cagayanense (oxeas of fistulae measure about 230 by 12 |x). 

 The Reniera tubes exhibit a great deal of lateral fusion ; this is so 

 extensive in places that the individuality of the tubes is here marked 

 external^ only by the cloacal apertures. Tubes range from small 

 ones 25 mm. high and 12 mm. in diameter to larger ones 50 mm. 

 high and 25 mm. in diameter. Tube wall is thick, diameter of cloaca 

 about one-third to one-fourth total diameter. Terminal cloacal 

 apertures relatively large, up to about 8 mm. in diameter. Common 

 amorphous basal part of sponge reaches 25 mm. in height; greatest 

 width of whole specimen 100 mm., greatest height 75 mm. Sponge 

 somewhat compressible and elastic, but soft and easily torn. Color 

 now a light dirty brown. 



Subdermal cavities of medium size underlie the thin dermal mem- 

 brane. From these, narrow afferent canals extend radially into the 

 wall. Corresponding radial efferent canals open by unobstructed aper- 

 tures directly into the cloaca ; apertures of these canals close together, 

 li/2 mm. in diameter to a fraction of a millimeter. Outer surface of 

 sponge, where it is well preserved, is minutely conulose; conuli a 

 small fraction of a millimeter high, about one millimeter apart but 

 spaced irregularly, vaguely shaped and feeble. Sponge, taken in 

 March, full of embryos. 



Skeleton essentially a renieroid reticulum, meshes square or tri- 

 angular, the side unispicular and about length of a spicule; tran- 

 sparent spongin at nodes of reticulum ; oxea of the cylindrical type, 

 132 by 6 \l. In addition, the tube wall includes some inconspicuous 

 polyspicular tracts which pursue in general a longitudinal course; 

 these tracts are loose, about 2-6 rows wide. Dermal reticulum un- 

 ispicular; meshes triangular, square, rectangular, or polygonal, like 

 those of the inner skeleton or often corresponding to two or three 

 of the latter; a few free, tangential, spicules also present in the 

 dermal membrane. 



Holotype.— Cat. No. 21293, U.S.N.M. 



The Albatross sponge is evidently the same form as that described 

 by Baer (1906), from the neighborhood of Cape Town. Baer's ex- 

 cellent photograph (pi. 1, fig. 8), although of a sponge somewhat 

 smaller than mine, shows the habitus. The oxeas are of about the 

 same size as in the Albatross sponge. Baer finds that the dermal 



