Sponges from South Australia. 137 



figs. 1 and 2), of which he subsequently made a family under 

 the name of " Aphrocerasidffi " [ib. 1867, p. 558) ; meanwhile 

 Dr. Bowerbank described a British species under the name of 

 ^' Leucogypsia Gosset,^^ for which he established the genus 

 *'Leucoggjysm'' (Phil. Trans. 1862, p. 1095, pi. Ixxii. figs. 3 

 and 4) ; and, lastly, Hackel in 1870 called these species 

 respectively '■^ Leucandra alcicorms " and "L. Gossei" which 

 he placed in the genus Leucandra of his family Leucones. 



Now an examination of Ajjhroceras alcicorms and Leuco- 

 gypsia Gossei shows that they are almost identical in struc- 

 ture and spiculation, although very different in form ; thus 

 they, in their aggregate state, may have a plurality of vents 

 which are all M^peristomed, each of which may lead into a 

 separate narrow cloaca, Avhich may be once or twice locularly 

 divided, and each loculus indistinctly limited by further 

 dividing into several large canals, thus forming a step towards 

 a simple, branched, canalicular structure without distinct 

 cloaca, as will be found by-and-by in TeicJioneUa prolifera ; 

 while the structure in which these cloacas are situated consists 

 of cancellated sarcode permeated by the canals of the excre- 

 tory system, and supported on a spicular skeleton consisting 

 of small radiates, traversed longitudinally by large, long, fusi- 

 form, slightly curved, symmetrical acerates, more or less 

 pointed at each end, arranged longitudinally and parallel to 

 each other tlirougliout the structure of the wall, but generally 

 most abundant towards the surface ^. 



Of the fact that both of these species have been placed by 

 Hackel in his family of Leucones there can be no doubt ; nor 

 can there be any that Dr. Gray's name, in the matter of 

 nomenclatural priority, takes precedence of all others. 



On the other hand, to Schmidt's '"''Ute glahra^'' which was 

 described in 186-4 {I. c), Hackel, in 1870, gave the name of 

 Sycandra glabra, and placed it under the genus Sgcandra in 

 his family of Sycones. 



Thus my Ajyhroceras asconoides and A. syconoides (which 

 latter is but a variety of Schmidt's Ute glabra), together with 

 Aphroceras alcicornis, Gray, would, if relegated according to 

 the structure of their walls, come under Hiickel's families of 

 Ascones, Sycones, and Leucones respectively ; but if relegated 

 according to the striking character of their spiculation which 

 the large parallel acerates present, all would come under the 



* Mr. Thomas H. Higgin, F.L.S., of Liverpool, in 1874, found a 

 branched species of A])hroceras at Holyhead, which I have described 

 under the name of A. rainosa (see Report i of the Liverpool Marine 

 Biological Committee upon the " Fauna of Liverpool Bay and the 

 Neighbouring Seas," p. 92, ed. Prof. W. A. Herdman, D.Sc. &c. 1886). 



