78 Records of ihc Indian Museinn. [Yor,. XIV, 



Habitat. — Intermediate zone of the Inle Lake and canals of clear 

 water in the neiii;hbourhood. 



Sponges were often extremely abundant among thickets of Cerato- 

 pJu/llum not far removed from the edge of the lake. None were, however, 

 found in similar thickets in the central region. They appeared to have 

 become more abundant at the beginning of March than they were in 

 February and to have grown considerably in size. 



The canals of this sponge shelter quite a little fauna of annelids 

 and insects. No less than three species of the genus Chaetogaster 

 (Oligochaeta)i were found in them, namely Ch. bem/alensis , Annandale, 

 Ch. annandalei, Stephenson, and ? Ch. limnaei, Baer, the identity of the 

 last, a common European species, being a little doubtful. All the 

 insects found in the canals were in a larval state. They included at 

 least two species of Chironomidae (Diptera) a Sisyra (Neuroptera) and 

 a Trichopteron. The last lived free without constructing a case to 

 protect itself. The worms were living in young and flourishing sponges, 

 as was the case with the type-specimens of Ch. armandalei '^ in Japan. 

 The original examples of Ch. bcngalensis ^ were, on the other hand, 

 attached to the bodies of molluscs of the genus Limnaea, on which 

 also Ch. limnaei* has been found both in Europe and in the Kumaon 

 lakes in the Himalayas. 



HYDROZOA. 



The only Hydrozoon found in the Inle Lake was Hydra vidgaris, 

 Pallas. Numerous specimens were collected from a bamboo house- 

 post in the intermediate zone near Fort Stedman. The post were over- 

 grown with sponges and Polyzoa. The specimens of Hydra were moder- 

 ately small and of a yellowish brown colour. They had five tentacles 

 and not more than two buds. None were sexually mature. 



POLYZOA. 



The only specimens of Polyzoa of which I was able to find any trace 

 belonged to the Ctenostomatous genus Hislopia. The weed-thickets so 

 characteristic of the central region and the intermediate zone seemed to 

 provide ideal quarters for Fredericella and certain species of Pluniafella, 

 but a very careful and prolonged search at a number of places failed 

 to reveal even a single statoblast. 



Hislopia lacustris, Carter. 

 (Plate XXI, fig. 4). 



18.58. Hislopia lacustris. Carter, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ITI, p. 170, pi. vii, figs. 1 — 3. 

 1011. Hislopia lacustris, Annandale, Faun. Brit. IniL, Freshw. -Sponges, etc., 



p. 202. 

 1917. Hislopia lacustris, id., Mem. As. Soc, Bengal, YI, pt. 1, p. 34. 



Hislopia lacustris occurs in very great abundance in all parts of the 

 Inle Lake except in foul water in the marginal zone. It grows in uniform 



1 Stephenson, Rec. Ind. Mus., XIV, pp. 9—11 (1918). 



- Stephenson, Mem. As. Soc, Bengal, VI, p. S8 (1917). 



' Annandale, Journ. As. Soc, Bengal (n. s.) I, j). 117 (1905). 



« Michaelson, Mem. Ind. Mus., ], p. 113 (1909), 



