THE ANNALS 



AJTD 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SEVENTH SERIES.] 

 No. 34. OCTOBER 1900. 



XLIII. — Description of Sponges from Funafuti. 

 By R. KlRKPATRlCK, Assistant, Natural History Museum. 



[Plates X1II.-XV.] 



The sponges described in this paper were obtained by the second 

 Boring Expedition to Funafuti, and were entrusted to me by 

 Prof. Judd for description. The specimens, which are mostly 

 very small, incrust or are attached to fragments of corals and 

 corallines dredged up from depths of from 30 to 145 fathoms. 

 The fragments were obtained only with great difficulty, since 

 they had to be detached from the bottom by means of chisels. 

 The collection includes the representatives of twenty-one 

 species, of which eleven are new. 



In 1897 Mr. Whitelegge described (30, p. 323) from the 

 same locality a small collection obtained from the surface of 

 the reefs. Of the sixteen species recorded by him only one 

 occurs in the present collection. 



Altogether thirty-six species have been recorded from this 

 locality. The special features of interest are the occurrence 

 (1) of Astrosclera Willeyana, Lister, which represents a new 

 family, or, possibly, order of calcareous sponges, (2) of a 

 recent species of the Lithonine genus Plectroninia, hitherto 

 found only in the Eocene, and (3) of a new genus of Clionidae. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 7. Vol. vi. 23 



