H. B. Kirk. — O71 New Zealand Sponges. 175 



peuial setse ; strong muscular bands run from the lateral to 

 the ventral pariates in the neighbourhood of the atria, a 

 character which unites this species and AcantJiodrilns annec- 

 tens to the genus Octochoitus ; the presence of these muscular 

 strands is perhaps to make up for the absence of penial setas ; 

 the atrial papillae can possibly be considerably protruded by 

 their means ; and, as they (the extruded papillas) are tapered 

 at the extremity, they can, it is likely, be actually inserted in 

 the spermatothecal orifice, and convey the sperm direct. 



" The oviducal pores are placed just in front of the ventral- 

 most setse. 



" The oviducts have no egg-sacs attached to them. 



" The sperm-sacs are in segme^lts ix., xi., xii. I could not 

 find any sac in the intervening segment. 



"The spermatothecae are, as in all the AcantJiodrilid(B 

 (excepting only A. communis), two pairs, and lie in the usual 

 segments — i.e., viii., ix. ; each pouch has, as in Acanthodrilus 

 annectens, more than one diverticulum ; in the present species 

 there are two, one of which is rather the larger. 



" Closely allied to AcantJiodrilus annectens as this species 

 undoubtedly is, there will be no difficulty in distinguishing it. 

 The chief points of difference are — (1) position of gizzard, 

 (2) normal position of gonads, (3) form of spermatotheca3." 



CoEEiGENDA. — In my last paper (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 

 XXV., p. 117), for Allolohophora ruhicunda (suhruhicunda, 

 Eisen), read Allolohopliora ruhellus, Savigny {Litmbricus cam- 

 pestris, Hutton). 



Art. XI. — Contribution to a Knoivledge of the New Zealand 



Sp)ongcs, 



By H. B. Kirk, M.A. 



l^Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 11th October, 1893.] 



Plate XXII. 



In presenting what is intended to be the first of a series of 

 papers on the New Zealand sponges, I feel that a few words 

 of explanation, perhaps of apology, are necessary. The field 

 of spongiology is such a wide one, it is so difficult to traverse — 

 it has been trodden by so many men of eminence, who, while 

 doing the most valuable work, have not always succeeded in 

 walking in amity there, and whose footsteps, crossing and re- 

 crossing, often make a network difficult to unravel — that it 

 might be thought that most biological workers would do well 



