1915. | N. ANNANDALE : Parasitic Sponges. 459 
finding one. The microscleres are a little larger than in Topsent’s 
European specimens, measuring about 00162 mm. in length, 
and their spines are much shorter and more slender than is indi- 
cated in Schmidt’s original figure. They are extremely nume- 
rous in the ectosome all over the sponge, but almost absent from 
the choanosome. ‘The large cells containing brown granules to 
which Topsent and other authors refer are still conspicuous, after 
about 28 years in spirit. 
S. plicata is common in dead coral in Indian seas, but in all 
the specimens I have examined seems to be associated with some 
species of Cliona. In places where the coral is of a crumbling con- 
sistency the external surface of the sponge is often covered with 
small calcareous granules of irregular form, while the larger masses 
of sponge often contain in their interior larger granules of a 
similar nature. These granules are larger than those produced by 
the activities of Cliona. The more slender processes of the Stoeba 
are as a rule in contact with the Cliona and often contain Cliona- 
spicules in their ectocyst and choanosome. 
In consideration of its method of life and growth this Indian 
form of Stoeba plicata is perhaps worthy of a varietal name and 
should be known as S. plicata (Schmidt) var. simplex (Carter), for 
Topsent (1895) in his elaborate account of the species, as it occurs 
in the Mediterranean, makes no mention of the peculiarities noted 
in the preceding paragraph. 
Family STELLETTIDAE. 
Stelletta vestigium, Dendy. 
1905. Dendy in Herdman’s Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, 11, p. 78, pl. ii, 
§: 7: 
My specimens of this species ate from the same fragments of 
dead coral as those in which the specimens of Stoeba plicata var. 
simplex described above were found. They permeate the coral in 
a fine network of slender strands and in part, at any rate, occupy © 
the excavations of Cliona viridis (Schmidt), spicules of which 
adhere to their ectosome. ‘The original specimen is described as 
“‘irregular in shape, massive, encrusting, and containing many 
foreign bodies.’’ Possibly it commenced its growth in the same 
manner as the example from Mergui, which agrees with it closely 
in spiculation and, so far as it is possible to say, in general 
structure. 
The species is only known from Ceylon and Tenasserim. 
Grade MONAXONELLIDA. 
Family EPIPOLASIDAE. 
Coppatias penetrans (Carter). 
1880. Tisiphonta penetrans, Carter Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) VI, p. 
141, pl. vii, figs. 44a-d. 
1905. Coppatias (Tisiphonia) penetrans, Dendy in Herdman’s Ceylon 
Pearl Fisheries, \11, p. 231. 
