24 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 272 



extensive material from India, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Burma, 

 Malaysia, Ceylon, and Hungary. 



Description. — Sponge forming irregular masses of varying dimen- 

 sions, ranging from rather flattish crusts to bulbous growths, with or 

 without rounded or lobelike projections; surface rarely smooth, as a 

 rule hispid ; oscula large, often opening in distal parts of rounded pro- 

 jections; dermal membrane well developed. Skeleton consisting of 

 definite vertical spicule fibers, interconnected by a varying number of 

 irregular transverse fibers, and held together by a moderate amount of 

 spongin. Consistency of live sponge ranging from fragile to moderately 

 soft. 



Megascleres rather stout, fusiform, and slightly curved amphioxea, 

 completely smooth; length range 265-370 n, width range 14-24 n. 



Microscleres absent. 



Gemmoscleres in shape and structure very similar to megascleres, 

 but considerably smaller, more curved, and sharply pointed; length 

 range 145-210 n, width range 5-8 n. 



Gemmules very abundant in mature sponge, scattered singly 

 throughout the skeletal meshes ; they are spherical and comparatively 

 large, ranging 440-610 /x in diameter; pneumatic layer very thick, 

 consisting of several tiers of regularly arranged polygonal air spaces; 

 gemmoscleres embedded in this coat tangentially or in an irregular 

 manner; foramen distinctly tubular, porus tube proximally often 

 slightly constricted and straight, dis tally ending into a funnel-shaped 

 depression of the pneumatic layer. 



Distribution. — Ranging from the type locality in India east 

 through Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, and China to the Philippines, 

 and west through Turkestan, Iran, and southern U.S.S.R. to Lake 

 Balaton, Hungary. Apparently also represented in Africa. 



Color in life. — Yellowish brown to tan. 



Discussion. — Gee (1932h) demonstrated his reason for considering 

 this species as being first mentioned by Carter (1849), but the fact 

 remains that Bowerbank (1863) was fkst in fully describing E. carteri 

 under this specific name. The present authors, therefore, follow the 

 taxonomic procedure of the majority of previous writers in introducing 

 this species under Bowerbank's name. 



The reasons for considering the "varieties" S. c. cava, S. c. lobosa, 

 S. c. mollis, S. c. balatonensis, and S. c. melli synonymous with E. 

 carteri were well documented by Gee (1932h). The present investiga- 

 tions support Gee's views that, in spite of an apparent diversity in the 

 mode of growth, all the spicular components of these forms remain 

 fully identical. A reexammation of the type slide of Spongilla aetheriae 

 Annandale (IM no. ZEV 6034/7) revealed that its scleres are morpho- 

 metrically fully comparable with those of an immature E. carteri, and 



