468 BULLETIN 100. UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



suborder Anoplia continues in use (as in Lendenfeld, 1903), the defi- 

 nition should read " usually without microseleres " instead of " with- 

 out microscleres." 



Tuprohane should probably be merged, in the next revision of the 

 group, into Micro scleroderma. In respect to the vasiform body, 

 skeletal framework, desma, oxeas, there is agreement. The appear- 

 ance of the microscleres in Microscleroderma is peculiar (Kirk- 

 patrick, 19026, pi. 4. fig. le). but the text makes it evident that they 

 are sigmas. The only differences seem to be that the sigmas are 

 ectosomal in Microsclerodenna and scattered through the body in 

 Taprobane, and that the apertures of the afferent canals in Micro- 

 scleroderma are perhaps not uniporal. 



Genus TAPROBANE Dendy (1905). 



Taprobane Dendy, 1905, i>. 102. 



Lamellate or vasiform sponges without special ectosomal mega- 

 scleres; with minute uniporal apertures on both faces; with mono- 

 crepid tuberculate desmas, long slender oxeas, and sigmas. 



TAPROBANE HERDMANI Dendy. 



Plate 44, fig. 5 

 Taprobane herdmani Dendy, 1905, p. 103. 



A dried specimen taken at station D5135 is referable to this spe- 

 cies. Like Dendy's type it is vasiform, but growth has taken place in 

 such a way that instead of one there is a complex of vases of differ- 

 ent sizes arising from a common basal plate; the separate vases more 

 or less fused. The smallest vase has almost the dimensions of 

 Dendy's type, being 65 mm. high and 70 mm. across the top. The 

 largest vase is 190 mm. high and 170 mm. across the top. The whole 

 mass is about 200 mm. wide, greatest height r90 mm. The wall is 

 about 10 mm. thick, somewhat thinner than in the type. The sponge 

 like the type is dense and stony. Color, whitish. The surface is 

 more even than in the type, and there are no barnacle galls. 



Both surfaces, where not rubbed, are shaggy witli projecting 

 bundles of long oxeas. Dendy finds the afferent and efferent uni- 

 poral areas, on opposite surfaces, alike and 0.3 mm. in diameter. 

 The efferent areas, covering the inner face, in the Albatross specimen 

 are of about this size and closely set : the rims 'prominent, doubtless 

 owing to the dried condition of sponge. The afferent areas, on the 

 outer surface, are similar but slightly smaller. 



The desmas agree with the type, the epirhabd in the adult spicule 

 being curved, with a few dads on the convex side. When isolated 

 witli hydrofluoric acid, they give the measurements recorded by 

 Dendy. The skeletal beams are richly tuberculate. the tubercles for 



