394 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vo1,.: VII, 
been found outside that zone. The exception (S. bombayensis), 
which occurs in Natal, has been found both in the W. Himalayas 
and on the Mysore plateau in the very centre of southern Penin- 
sular India. 
The only genus of Spongillidae that appears to be endemic in 
India is Pectispongilla, which has not been found except on the 
western side of the Western Ghats. It has no very close allies, so 
far as we know, in any other district. 
The majority of the remaining sponges of the Western Ghats 
and the plains between them and the Arabian Sea are widely dis- 
tributed forms. Spongilla cinerea, however, has only been found 
at Bombay, in the Ghats and in the W. Himalayas, its range 
somewhat resembling the Indian range of Spongilla bombayensts, 
but being more restricted in that it does not, apparently, extend 
into the main area of the Peninsula. ‘The race lobosa of Spongilla 
carteri appears to be endemic in Travancore on the western side of 
the Ghats, while Tvochospongilla pennsylvanica has probably, ac- 
cording to Miss Stephens (16), only been found in N. America and 
in Travancore. 
It is thus clear that the sponge fauna of the Malabar Zone is 
abundantly distinct from that of any other part of India, although 
it includes many widely distributed species that occur in other 
districts. It appears to have distinct affinities with that of tropi- 
cal Africa, and especially with that of Lake Tanganyika, but ex- 
hibits no more trace of a recent marine origin than is shown by 
the Spongillidae of any other country. In considering its peculi- 
arities, however, allowance must be made for the bionomical fac- 
tor. Some of the most characteristic sponges of the zone are only 
found in the beds of rocky streams which for part of year are 
raging torrents and for part a series of almost isolated pools. Few 
sponges have been found in similar conditions in other parts of 
India, the mountainous districts of which are for the most part 
almost unexplored so far as the aquatic fauna is concerned. It . 
may be that many of the peculiarities or apparent peculiarities of 
the Spongillidae of the Western Ghats are merely characteristic of 
sponges that flourish in the peculiar circumstances that prevail 
there, and that these peculiarities will be found to be much less 
distinctive when other mountain ranges are as well known as the 
Western Ghats. 
LITERATURE: 
1. Alcock, A. W. Catalogue of the Indian Decapod Crustacea 
in the Collection of the Indian Museum, pt. I, 
fasc. II (Potamonidae), Igro. 
Annandale, N. ‘“‘ Noteson Freshwater Sponges. VIII.— 
Preliminary Notice of a collection from West- 
ern India, with descriptions of two new 
species.” Rec. Ind. Mus., I1, p. 25 (1908). 
3: 33 ‘“ Report on a small collection of Sponges 
from Travancore.’’ Rec. Ind. Mus., III, p. ror 
(1909). 
NO 
