REVISION OF FRESHWATER SPONGES OF SPONGILLIDAE 3 



mosclere characteristics. This paper, therefore, is the result of two 

 independent studies. J. T. Penney was responsible for the accumula- 

 tion of a worldwide collection of almost all known genera and species, 

 prepared thousands of slides as well as an elaborate cataloging system, 

 and had begun to outline a thorough revision of the subfamily 

 Meyeninae as the first phase of his planned publication. A. A. Racek 

 reexamined the above collection and extensive additional material 

 from Australasia, Europe, and eastern Asia, reviewed the entire 

 collection of freshwater sponges in the Smithsonian Institution, 

 restored Gray's taxonomic system, established three neotypes, one 

 new species, and three new genera from the material studied, and 

 finally prepared the present report. Whenever the viewpoint of the 

 late author coidd be established from the notes available or from 

 previous correspondence with the coauthor, reference is made in the 

 text to the "present authors." Personal views or necessary actions of 

 the coauthor alone are denoted by the word "writer" wherever ap- 

 pHcable. The entire collection of slides and specimens amassed by the 

 late author and the holotype of one new species have been deposited 

 in the U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution. In addition, 

 some paratypes and part of Gee's collection are now also present in 

 the collection of the Austrahan Museum, Sydney. 



The authors wish to express thanks to aU the many persons and 

 institutions throughout the world whose kind cooperation has enabled 

 this study to reach its present form. The international response of a 

 great number of museums, private collectors, and spongillid specialists 

 to the late author's request for comparative material was truly over- 

 whelming. Specimens arrived for this investigation from Denmark, 

 Norway, Sweden, Finland, England, Ireland, the U.S.S.R., Czecho- 

 slovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Ger- 

 many, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, 

 Thailand, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, 

 Bohvia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and from many parts of the United 

 States. 



On his own behalf, the writer is greatly hidebted to a number of 

 persons, who in so many ways have contributed to the progress of 

 this huge project: to Dr. B. Theodore Cole, Head, Department of 

 Biology, University of South Carolina, for his constant encourage- 

 ment, unflagging cooperation, and most generous hospitality; to Dr. 

 F. Harrison, former research assistant to the late author, for his 

 extensive and cheerful assistance in the examination and correlation 

 of the material studied; to Drs. D. F. Squu-es, W. L. Schmitt, and 

 D. L. Pawson of the Smithsonian Institution for then- kind help 

 offered during comparative studies in Washington, D.C.; to Dr. L. B. 

 Holthuis, Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historic, Leiden, for valuable 



