XXI. NOTES ON FREvSH WATER 

 SPONGES. 



By N. AnnandaIvE, D.Sc, Superintendent , Indian Museum. 

 XI. -^Description of a new species of Spongilla 



FROM OrTSSA. 



Genus Spongilla. 

 Subgenus Euspongilla. 



Spongilla hemephydatia , sp. nov. 



Sponge soft, fragile, amorphous, of a dirty yellow colour, with 

 large oscula, which are not conspicuously raised above the surface 

 but open into very wide channels in the substance of the sponge. 

 The oscular collars are fairly well developed, but the subepidermal 

 space is not extensive. 



Skeleton diffuse, consisting of very fine radiating fibres, which 

 are crossed at wide and irregular intervals by still finer transverse 

 ones; very little chitinoid substance present. 



Spicules. — Skeleton spicules smooth, slender, sharply pointed 

 at both ends, nearly straight. No true flesh spicules. Gemmule 

 spicules straight or nearly so, cylindrical, obscurely pointed, clothed 

 with short, sharp, straight spines, which are very numerous, but 

 not markedly longer, at the two ends; these spicules frequentl}^ 

 found free in the parenchyma. 



Gemnmles numerous, small, free, spherical, yellow, with a well- 

 developed granular coat (in which the spicules are arranged almost 

 horizontally) and external to it a fine membrane, which in preserved 

 specimens becomes puckered owing to unequal contraction ; each 

 gemmule with a single aperture, provided with a straight, rather 

 wide but very delicate foraminal tubule. 



Measurements of spicules and gcinmiiles. 



Length of skeleton spicule . . 0"3I3 mm. 



Breadth ,, ,, .. o'oia ,, 



Length of gemmule spicule .. o'o62 ,, 



Breadth ,, ,, .. 0-004 ,, 



Diameter of gemmule . . . . 0-313— 0-365 mm. 



This sponge in its general structure bears a very close resem- 

 blance to Ephydatia crater iformis. 



Habitat. — Growing on weeds at the edge of the Sur Lake, 

 Orissa, October, igo8. Only one specimen was taken, together 

 with many examples of S. laciistris subs)). reticulata, S. carteri and 

 S. crassissinia. 



