REVISION OF FRESHWATER SPONGES OF SPONGILLIDAE 65 



moscleres often shorter and more robust, their spines often malformed 

 or subdivided; length range of typical gemmoscleres 72-105 /z, width 

 range 3.5-5 n. 



Gemmules abundant in mature sponge, more or less restricted 

 to basal parts of the skeletal meshes without forming a pavement 

 layer; in perennial specimens often extremely rare or altogether 

 absent; they are spherical, ranging in diameter 420-500 fx, and possess 

 a well developed and thick pneumatic coat consisting of minute 

 irregular air spaces; gemmoscleres embedded in this coat more or less 

 radially, frequently slightly crossing each other, arranged in a single 

 layer, their tips slightly penetrating outer gemmular membrane that 

 thus attains a hispid appearance; foramen distinctly tubular, porus 

 tube invariably short and relatively wide, in length not reaching to 

 level of outer gemmular membrane; surrounded by a conical de- 

 pression caused by slanting gemmoscleres in its vicinity. 



Distribution. — Widely distributed in eastern Australia, ranging 

 from Victoria to central Queensland; also recorded from New Zealand, 

 and most probably also present in New Guinea and New Caledonia 

 (Racek, MS.). 



Color in life. — Emerald green, regardless of position to light. 



Discussion. — Because of the insufficient original description by 

 Haswell (1882) and the regrettable fact that its type apparently has 

 never been deposited, R. sceptroides remained a most dubious species 

 for many decades. Unfortunately, the material of S. sceptroides de- 

 posited in the USNM and redescribed under this name by Annandale 

 (1909h) is not a specimen of Haswell's species; it represents a new 

 species of this genus that will be described by the wTiter in a forth- 

 coming paper. Gee (193 Id, p. 37) used Annandale's descriptions and 

 illustrations in his revision of S. sceptroides, and he consequently noted 

 inexphcable differences between the material from the USNM and the 

 previous descriptions of Haswell's species by Lendenfeld (1887), 

 Whitelegge (1889), and Traxler (1896b). 



Gee (193 Id) drew attention to the fact that a jar marked "Type, S. 

 sceptroides Haswell, Lillesmere Lagoon, Lower Burdekin B,., Queens- 

 land" in the collection of the AusM could hardly represent the true 

 type material. Under reexamination, this jar turned out to contain still 

 another spongillid without gemmules, which most probably represents 

 Ephydatia Jluvlatilis. Apart from the fact that this sponge certainly 

 belongs to another genus, it cannot possibly be Haswell's type speci- 

 men which came from the vicinity of Brisbane, several hundred miles 

 to the south. Since the true tj^pe of 5'. sceptroides could not be located 

 in the two institutions, i.e., the Macleay Museum and the AusM, 

 where most of Haswell's type specimens are deposited, it must now be 

 considered as lost. The writer, therefore, has selected as the neotype of 



