were attempted. In other groups of animals 

 and plants only those most commonly occurring 

 were regularly collected and/or recorded. 



Twenty-three sessile animals and plants 

 were recorded 25 percent or more of the time 

 as being found growing on the same bar as the 

 wool sponge (table 8). Of these, 10 were found 

 at 50 percent or more of these same stations. 

 These 23 animals and plants represent the basic 

 ecological group associated with the wool 

 sponges. Where wool sponges are absent, the 

 presence of this group will possibly indicate 

 an area where ecological conditions are favor- 

 able and into which wool sponge might be trans- 

 planted successfully. 



If suitable substrate is limiting the attach- 

 ment, it might be practical to use "cultch." 

 The cultch would have to be of a fairly large 

 size to hold the sponges firmly on the bottom. 



Several sponges were found only once or not 

 at all on the same bar with wool sponges. This 

 appears to be of no significance and seems to 

 indicate either their scarcity or the fact that 

 they were overlooked at other stations. These 

 sponges were: Callyspongia arcesiosa, Neo- 

 petrosia longleyi, Aulena Columbia, Fibulia massa, 

 Iligginsia strigilata. 



Total Sponge Species and Their 

 Distribution 



Counting both those sponges collected in the 

 Keys area and the west Florida coast, we 

 collected and identified 83 species in 58 genera 

 (table 9). This is only a part of the collection 

 record of a largenumber of plants and animals. 

 These data will be published elsewhere. The 

 major portion of the identification of the 

 sponges was made by Robert Work, who 

 assisted during the first year of the 



Table 8. — Record of association with wool sponges, by percentage of stations 



40 



