422 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The status of the subfamilies Tedaniinae, Desmacellinae, ana 

 Merliinae, which are not represented among the sponges studied, 

 is as follows : 



Subfamily Tedaniinae. 



Tedaniinae Ridley and Dendy, 1887, p. 50. 



Forms in which the chelas have been lost. Megascleres of two 

 forms, monactinal forming the main skeleton, and diactinal, tylote 

 or tornote, forming the dermal skeleton. Microscleres generally 

 present in the form of rhaphides. Genera distinguished by Ridley 

 and Dendy : Tedania Gray 1867, Trachytedania Ridley, 1881. 



Topsent distinguishes the rhaphides of these forms, as onychetes, 

 from true rhaphides; they, the former, are described, (1913, p. 630) 

 as inequiended and spinulose in a definite fashion. Topsent, 1912 

 (p. 3), separates species without microscleres under a new genus, 

 Kirkpatrickia. 



Ridley and Dendy placed the group in their family Heter- 

 orrhaphidae. Topsent, 1894c, transferred the genera to the Des- 

 macidonidae. Lundbeck, 1902 (p. 1), likewise places the genera 

 in the Desmacidonidae, referring them to subfamily Mycalinae. 

 Hentschel, 1911 (p. 332, and 1912), disposes of them in the same 

 way, except that he merges Trachytedania in Tedania. Dendy, 

 19216, (p. 25), also incorporates these sponges in the Desmaci- 

 donidae. 



Subfamily Desmacellinae. 



Desmacellinae Ridley and Dendy, 1SS7, p. 58. 



Ridley and Dendy defined the group : " Megasclera all monactinal, 

 stylote or tylostylote. Microselera sigmata or toxa or both." and 

 assigned the sponges to the Heterorrhaphidae. Genera distinguished 

 by Ridley and Dendy included only Desmacella Schmidt, 1870 (Des- 

 macodes Schmidt, 1870, is a synonym) . 



Topsent, 1892 (p. 80), continues to use the subfamily, but adds 

 Biemma Gray (1867), which is redefined as having tylostyles and 

 sigmas, and a halichondrioid skeletal framework, whereas Desma- 

 cella Schmidt (1870, p. 83) is defined as having tylostyles or styles 

 or a mixture of the two forms, with sigmas or toxas or with both 

 together, or with trichodragmas, or with trichodragmas accom- 

 panied by either sigmas or toxas, and with a skeletal framework 

 that is fibrous. Topsent recognizes four species of Biemma and six 

 species of Desmacella. Topsent (1894c, p. 6) abandons the sub- 

 families and transfers the genera to the Esperellinae (Mycalinae). 



Lundbeck, 1902, uses the subfamily, placed in the Heterorrha- 

 phidae, to include Biemma, Desmacella, and Hamacantha, Biemma 



