390 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vora Valit 
(b) Oscula either not elevated or 
on eminences of irregular 
form 4 .. C. burmanica bombavensis. 
2. Sponge of almost stony consis- 
tency, external surface without 
spines; radiating fibres indis- 
tinct +. vy, .. C, lapidosa. 
CORVOSPONGILLA CAUNTERI, Annandale. 
Faun. Brit. Ind., Freshwater Sponges, etc., p. 243, fig. 48 
(IQIL). 
The first specimens of this species were taken in April, IgII, 
on the pier of a brick-work bridge near Lucknow. Mr. Gravely 
obtained others in April, 1912, on rocks in the pool of a stream 
at Medha on the eastern side of the Western Ghats. Both sets of 
specimens were taken in running water. Both contained only 
free gemmules with well-developed pneumatic coats and formed 
only very thin films on their supports. It is improbable that fixed 
gemmules are ever formed in this species, unless it sometimes 
attains a very much greater thickness than the specimens examined 
have attained, for the outer cases of such gemmules would be 
almost as deep as the sponge itself. Although the sponge only 
forms a thin film of two or three millimetres’ thickness, its hard- 
ness can be readily felt if it is squeezed between the finger and . 
thumb. Mr. Gravely’s specimens are a trifle thicker than the 
types and darker in colour. 
CORVOSPONGILLA ULTIMA (Annandale). 
Spongilla (Stratospongilla) ultima, Annandale, tom. cit., p. 104, 
fig. 19. 
Corvospongilla ultima, td., Rec. Ind. Mus., vii, p. 99 (1912). 
Specimens obtained by Mr. Gravely on rocks in a pool of a 
stream at Taloshi on the eastern watershed of the Western Ghats 
in April are sufficiently different from those taken at Cape Comorin 
and at Tanjore to be made the types of a new variety, for which 
I propose the name, 
var. SPINOSA, nov. 
The chief taxonomic peculiarity of this variety lies in the fact 
that its external surface is distinctly spiny. This is due to the 
protrusion of the radiating fibres, which, instead of becoming dis- 
sipated as they approach the surface, are prolonged upwards 
beyond it, often for a distance of several millimetres. The oscula 
also are larger than in the typical form and have no radiating 
furrows. 
A more striking peculiarity is the occurrence of free as well 
as fixed gemmules ; but of course this may be due to the season at 
which the sponge was taken or to its physiological condition rather 
than to any inherent character. The free gemmules are smaller 
