466 Records of the Indian Museum. [Voy. XI, 
coral is much eroded owing to the attacks of various burrowing 
organisms and part of the galleries excavated by the Cliona have 
completely broken down, leaving a fairly large open cavity. The 
growth of the Rhabderemia appears to have commenced in this 
cavity and then to have proceeded inwards along the excavations 
of the other sponge, parts of which it had completely surrounded 
and was apparently in the act of engulfing. 
The buds to which reference has been made are merely por- 
tions of the sponge that have grown over projecting fragments 
of coral in the angles of the galleries and have then become con- 
stricted at the base. 
The specimen, though dry, is in good condition, having origi- 
nally been preserved in spirit. 
The species is very closely related to R. pusilla (Carpenter) 4 
of which it should perhaps be regarded as a variety. It is distin- 
guished, however, by its larger sigmata, which are of a slightly 
different type, its longer slender styli (or tylostyli), and its stouter 
and more variable rhabdostyli. ‘Topsent describes R. pusilla as an 
excessively thin ‘‘éponge jaune pale revétante.’’ The only Indian 
sponge hitherto referred to the genus Rhabderemia is Dendy’s 
R. indica® from Ceylon. It has short roughened styli and sig- 
mata that are often twisted into a complete knot in the centre ; 
the skeleton is reticulate. 
Family AXINELLIDAE. 
Genus Amorphinopsis, Carter. 
1887. Amorphinopsis, Carter, Fqurn. Linn. Soc. London (Zool.) XXI, 
1896. She heor ites Topsent, Mém. Zool. Soc. France IX, p. 117. 
1900. Spongosorites, id., Arch. Zool. exbérim. VIII, p. 265. 
1905. Spongosorites, Dendy in Herdman’s Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, III, 
p. 182. 
In examining a fragment of the piece of dead sponge-riddled 
coral described by Carter in 1887 I came across a small sponge 
that afforded me much difficulty, until I had compared my 
preparations with others made from the material sorted out and 
named by that author, On making a comparison I could not 
remain in doubt that this sponge was the same as the one named 
by him Amorphinopsis excavans; indeed, it was probably a schizo- 
type of that species. Carter’s descriptions are as a rule remark- 
ably clear and accurate, but this was not the case in the present 
instance, in which his figures are actually misleading. He gave no 
separate description of Amorphinopsis, the generic characters of 
which he left to be inferred mainly from his specific diagnosis. 
The sponge agrees with Topsent’s description of Spongosorites, 
except in the fact that its spicules are not ‘‘ biangulate.’’ In Car- 
1 Microciona pusilla, Carter, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) XVIII, p. 239, pl. xvi, 
tig. 51 (1876) and Topsent, Mém. Zool. Soc. France 1889 (II), p. 41, fig. 7. 
2 In Herdman’s Ceylon Pearl Fish. 111, p. 180, pl xii, fig. 10 (1905). 
