FORAMINIFEKA OF THE PHILIPPINE AND ADJACENT SEAS. 101 

 Avnnosphaerulina adhaerens — Material examined. 



Genus NOURIA Heron-Allen and Earland, 1914. 



NOURIA HARRISU Heron-Allen and Earland. 



Nouria Tiarrisii Heron-Allen and Earland, Trana. Zool. Soc. London, vol. 20, 

 pt. 12, 1914, p. 376, pi. 37, figs. 16-20. 



The following is the original description of this species: 



Test free, fusiform, cylindrical to subcylindrical in section, consisting of two to four 

 chambers arranged in a pohanorphine manner and constructed entirely of sponge 

 spicules arranged in a single layer with their a.xes arranged more or less parallel to the 

 long axis of the test. The ultimate chamber terminating in a somewhat produced 

 neck, on which is situated the aperture of the test, which is a circular opening. The 

 lines of demarcation between the separate chambers are marked by very slight sutural 

 depressions, but are principally recognizable owing to a divergence of the angles at 

 which the spicules of adjacent chambers are arranged (fig. 18). The septa tion of the 

 internal cavity is very incomplete, but the different successive chambers are recog- 

 nizable in section by these sutural depressions, which extend as an incomplete septum 

 into the cavity of the test. It follows that each of these incomplete septa must origi- 

 nally have formed a portion of the external wall of the test which has been absorbed 

 in the course of growth, the spicules, no doubt, being rebuilt into the new investing 

 wall. 



We first noticed this form more than 20 years ago in dredgings made by the late 

 Captain Seabrook, and given to us by our old friend and correspondent, the late Mr. 

 W. H. Harris, of Cardiff. The dredgings in which the specimens occurred were made 

 off Cebu in the Philippine Islands (depth 120 fathoms, volcanic mud) and in the Java 

 Sea (45 fathoms). Identical specimens have since been observed in a dredging from 

 the Sahul Bank, in the Timor Sea (60 fathoms), and in a dredging off Old Providence 

 Island in the Caribbean Sea (382 fathoms). The peculiar and highly characteristic 

 construction of the test is the same in all these widely separated localities; and, as 

 sponge spicules do not form any marked proportion of the bottom in any of the dredg- 

 ings, the "selective" tendency must be regarded as exceptionally pronounced — 

 almost as striking, in fact, as in our species Technitella thompsoni,^ which form a heter- 

 ogeneous mass of available material, selects for the construction of its test nothing 

 but the plates of an Ophiurid. 



The skill, or "purpose," exhibited by this little organism in the building of its 

 test reaches its most remarkable development in the construction of the aperture. 

 The spicules designed to form the terminal portion of the shell are selected by the 

 organism of such size and shape as to form a perfectly tapered neck with a circular 

 aperture, round which the points of the spicules often form a regular fringe (figs. 17, 

 18, 20). It would appear that the organism utilizes only such spicules as are suitable 

 for its purposes, owing to their tapering form, terminating in a sharp point, which 

 allows the size of the aperture to be considerably reduced, as compared with the size 

 which would have resulted from the utilization of broken or blunted spicules. The 



8 Joum, Quekett Micr. Club, ser. 2, vol. 10, 1909, pp. 403-412, pis. 31-35. 



