REVISION OF FRESHWATER SPONGES OF SPONGILLIDAE 89 



The reexamination of the syntype available for the present study 

 revealed clearly that a number of criteria displayed by E. japonica are 

 at distinct variance with those of E. mulleri. Until additional material 

 will be available and the true range of Hilgendorf 's sponge established, 

 it therefore seems advisable to restore its separate specific status in 

 order not to obscure possible taxonomic evidence. 



Ephydatia ramsayi (Haswell, 1882) 



Plate 7, figures 13-15, 21 



Merjenia ramsayi Haswell, 1882, p. 210.— Potts, 1887, p. 228.— Penney, 1960, p. 53. 



Spongilla fluviatilis var. ramsayi Lendenfeld, 1887, p. 92. 



fEphydatia ramsayi Annandale, 1909c, p. 421. 



Ephydatia ramsayi Weltner, 1895, p. 114; 1910, p. 137. — Annandale, 1918a, p. 



213.— Gee, 1931e, p. 47; 1931d, p. 59; 1932c, p. 32.— Schroder, 1935, p. 102. 

 Ephydatia fluviatUis var. ramsayi Vorstman, 1927, p. 181. — Gee, 1929d, p. 297; 



1931d, p. 26. 



Material. — Type material and shdes (AusM) ; several specimens 

 from New South Wales and Queensland. 



Description. — Mature sponge massive and tubercular; surface of 

 large specimens always distinctly corrugated and hispid, that of thinner 

 modes of growth ranging from smooth to irregularly lobose; oscula few 

 in number and conspicuous, dermal membrane well developed. Skele- 

 ton composed of distinct polyspicular vertical, and rather ill-defined 

 horizontal fibers, both joined together by a considerable amount of 

 spongin. Consistency of live sponge moderately hard and firm, skeleton 

 of dry sponge often very hard. 



Megascleres shghtly curved and moderately stout amphioxea, us- 

 ually rather cyUndrical, rarely distinctly fusiform, their great majority 

 armed with inconspicuous spines, except at their tips, only exception- 

 ally entu-ely smooth; length range 230-350 n, width range 11-17 p.. 



Microscleres absent. 



Gemmoscleres typically birotulates of one class, with stout cylindri- 

 cal shafts, invariably bearing 1-10 acute and prominent spines, and 

 terminally with rotules of equal diameter and distinctly flat shape, 

 irregularly incised in a number of lobes and rays; malformations quite 

 frequent, resulting in freak scleres, the deposition of granules of silica 

 on the outer face of the rotules, and a heterogeneous growth of the birot- 

 ulates which then differ from each other in length to a varying degree; 

 length of shaft typically 32-42 m, diameter of rotules ranging 20-23 n, 

 A\ddth of shaft about 6-7 /x; abnorm.al spicules, while fully comparable 

 in diameter of rotules and width of shaft, often ranging 28-45 n in 

 length on the same gemmule. 



Gemmules more abundant in basal regions of the sponge than in 

 other parts, spherical in shape, ranging in diameter 350-460 p,; pneu- 

 matic layer well developed and comparatively thick, consisting of 



