46 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 72 



Gemmoscleres strongly curved amphistrongyla, often forming a 

 wide arc, and usually with inflated tips, entirely covered with minute 

 blunt spines or granules; length range 35-63 ijl, width range 7-8 ix. 



Gemmules ranging in diameter 440-580 n, spherical, and situated in 

 small loculi near the base of the sponge, apparently not adherent to the 

 support; pneumatic coat feebly developed, without discernible air 

 spaces, not forming a basal membrane as in the majority of other 

 species of this genus; gemmoscleres forming a dense, tangentially 

 arranged mosaic layer over inner gemmular membrane; foramen 

 provided with a short and straight porus tube. 



Distribution. — Found only in type locality in India. 



Color in life. — Recorded as bright green. 



Discussion. — The reasons for the restoration of S. gravelyi as a 

 separate species were given in the discussion of S. sumatrana. Strato- 

 spongilla gravelyi displays a characteristic mode of gemmular attach- 

 ment, and its free microscleres are distinctly different from those of 

 other species, so that it cannot possibly be retained as a mere "variety" 

 of the S. sumatrana complex. Annandale (1912d, p. 386) made the 

 most interesting observation that, in regard to megascleres and general 

 structure, S. gravelyi resembles most closely the "mountain form" of 

 Spongilla cinerea Carter, although the structure of the skeleton and 

 that of the gemmules were different in these two sponges. In the few 

 slides of S. cinerea available for study, this resemblance was again 

 discovered, and some of the gemmules of material labeled S. 

 cinerea clearly possess a very few stratospongillid amphistrongylous 

 gemmoscleres in addition to the rather radiaUy arranged typical 

 amphioxea. Since S. cinerea is a poorly represented and iU-known 

 species, the true generic relationship of which remains somewhat 

 vague, its paucity in material collected could weU be explained by 

 its representing a mere growth form of a Stratospongilla sp. Even 

 though this view is still little more than speculation, the similarity 

 of the gemmoscleres of S. cinerea to the free microscleres of S. gravelyi 

 is indeed striking, and the stratospongilUd microscleres, restricted to 

 the vicinity of gemmules in this genus, could possibly be gemmoscleres 

 of a different growth form. Should this assumption be documented by 

 further detailed studies, S. cinerea, which still defies a generic defini- 

 tion, could finally be put into its proper taxonomic place. 



Stratospongilla rousseletii (Kirkpatrick, 1906) 



Spongilla rousseletii Kirkpatrick, 1906, p. 223. — Weltner, 1913, p. 476. — Annan- 

 dale, 1914, p. 245.— Stephens, 1919, p. 99.— Gee, 1931e, p. 48; 1932c, p. 41.— 

 Arndt, 1933c, p. 309; 1936, p. 15.— Penney, 1960, p. 27. 



AIaterial.— Shdes of type (BM and N. Gist Gee). 



Description. — Sponge, according to Kirkpatrick (1906), forming 



