THE GENUS RASPAILIA AND THE INDEPENDENT VARI- 

 ABILITY OF DIAGNOSTIC FEATURES 



By H. V. Wilson 



The genus Raspailia (Nardo, 1833, 1847; 0. Schmidt, 1862, p. 59) 

 was classed by Ridley and Dendy, 1887, p. 188, in the Axinellidae but 

 transferred by Topsent, 1894, to the Ectyoninae. In this Topsent has 

 been generally followed, including Dendy, 1895 (p. 46), who here re- 

 gards the genus as intermediate between the two groups. Dendy 

 later (1905, p. 172) departs from this view and regards the resemblance 

 of Raspailia to the Axinellidae as strong but superficial. Hentschel 

 (1912, p. 413) brings out the skeletal resemblance between the Ecty- 

 onine genera centering round Raspailia and certain Axinellidae, and 

 inclines to regard it as due to kinship and not to convergent evolution, 

 thus maintaining the position of Dendy in 1895. Vosmaer, 1912, keeps 

 Raspailia alongside of Axinella, Phakellia, Acanthella, and Phacanth- 

 ina, thus indicating his belief in a relationship to these genera. George 

 and Wilson, 1919, pp. 160-161, in describing Axinella acanthifera re- 

 gard it as intermediate between typical Raspailias and Axinellas, In 

 this species there are some acanthostyles and the dermal brushes in- 

 clude a few long slender styles, but the habitus is lamellate, and the 

 skeletal framework of the same type as in Axinella verrucosa (Vosmaer, 

 1912). 



In dehmiting Raspailia more precisely, Vosmaer, 1912, p. 313, 

 takes the Mediterranean R. viminalis (O. Schmidt, 1862, p. 59) as 

 embodying the characteristics of the genus. The characters empha- 

 sized are : the axial skeleton is a funis (a reticular Imndle composed of 

 elementary fibres or funiculi) with wide meshes, component funiculi 

 thin, spicules wholly or almost wholly imbedded in spongin; from this, 

 slender and short extra-axial funiculi (radial fibres), composed of one, 

 two, or three spicules cemented together bj^ spongin, radiate to the 

 surface, where each terminates in a single large style or subtylostyle, 

 projecting far beyond the surface, surrounded at its base by a tuft of 

 diverging small spicules, generally styles, sometimes oxea. Acantho- 

 styles occur, dispersed in the parenchyma and echinating the funiculi. 

 Skeletal megasclcres, chiefly long, slender styles, occasionally tylo- 



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