1919. | N. ANNANDALE: Sfonges, Hydrozoa and Polyzoa. 87 
lype-specimen. P. % Z.S.1. (Ind. Mus.). 
These specimens were collected in December, 1918 by Bomba- 
dier R. Hodgart of the Anglo-Indian Battery (Zoological Collector 
in the Z.S.I.) and presented by him to the Zoological Survey of 
India. 
Spongilla (Eunapius) carteri, Carter. 
1911. Spongillacartert, Annandale, Faun. Brit. Ind., Freshw. Sponges, etc., 
p: 87, fig. 14. 
Gemmules, which do not differ from those of Indian specimens, 
were found among drift at the edge of a pool in the desert near 
Nasratabad, Seistan, in December, 1918. The pool in flood-time 
is connected with an effluent of the Helmand. 
This sponge is by far the commonest species in the plains of 
India. It has also been found in Hungary, Mauritius and several 
of the Malay islands. Its occurrence so far west in Asia as 
Eastern Persia is interesting in view of the fact that it has been 
found in Eastern Europe. Specimens from Lake Balaton in Hun- 
gary differ somewhat in structure from any Indian form, but 
their gemmules are closely similar. 
Ephydatia fluviatilis, auct. 
1911. Ephydatia fluviatilis, Weltner, Trans. Soc. Nat. St. Pétersbourg 
XLII, p.'59, pl. i. 
1916. Ephydatia fluviatilis, Annandale, Fourn. As. Soc. Bengal (n.s.) XI, 
Pp. 445. 
Sponges of this species we1e found in the Hamun-i-Helmand in 
two different types of environment, on the lower surface of blocks 
of hard clay at the edge of the lake and on the stems of bulrushes 
in the reed-beds. Specimens from these two habitats differ con- 
siderably, but neither affords any very definite diagnostic character 
whereby it might be distinguished nominally from the forma typica 
of the species. Both phases differ from the Himalayan var. himalay- 
ensis (which is so near the Syrian var. syrvaca that it is hardly 
worth while to distinguish them) in the almost complete absence of 
spines or tubercles, however minute, on the skeleton-spicules. 
Sponges on the stems of bulrushes form a layer 2 to 3, rarely 
5 mm. thick. The outline of each mass is oval, following the iong 
axis of the reed, which it rarely, if ever, completely encircles. Few 
are more than about 70 mm. long. Their colour is dirty white. 
The external surface is smooth and rounded with but moderately 
conspicuous exhalent orifices and radiating superficial channels. 
The consistency is very soft and friable. The skeleton contains 
little binding substance and is not particularly regular in structure. 
There are no bubble-cells. The skeleton-spicules are short and 
slender, sharply but abruptly pointed, often a little irregular in 
outline and sometimes bearing a few widely scattered extremely 
minute tubercles, as a rule gently curved but sometimes bent in the 
middle or elsewhere almost abruptly. In some parts of the sponge 
there are groups of very small and slender spicules. Measurements 
of these are not included in the table given below. The gemmule- 
