Sponges from Funafuti. 355 



slightly curved j head faintly trilobed, 12 p in breadth (one 

 large tylote 1295 X 15 p was present on the microscopic slide). 



Microscleres : discasters, 54 p in length, straight or 

 slightly curved, shaft spinose, tylote ; disks concave above, 

 convex below, with thick spinose rims; upper disk 19 p, 

 lower 26 p in diameter. 



Small nail-shaped tylotes, 120 x 6 /a, straight, ending in a 

 very sharp point, with double head 11 /a in breadth. 



Carter gives a figure of a discaster (2, p. 358, pi. xxix. 

 fig. 20) obtained by him from the debris of the root-tuft of 

 Evplectella cucumer from the Comoro Islands, which closely 

 resembles the discaster of the new species. 



Locality. W. of Tutanga, Funafuti, 86 fath. 



Tedania levis, sp. n. (PL XIV. fig. 4, a-e.) 



Sponge forming a pale slate-coloured crust about 10 millim. 

 in area and '5 millim. in thickness, on a nodule of coralline. 



Surface smooth ; no oscules or pores visible; consistence 

 firm. 



Skeleton. — Dermal : a felt-like network of tangentially 

 arranged, contorted, spined strongyles. Choanosomal : a 

 rather dense mass of contorted spined strongyles, occasionally 

 with a tendency to unite into bundles ; also scattered smooth 

 stvli (rather rare) and scattered smooth strongyles (rather 

 rare). Trichodragmata and rhaphides abundant, the former 

 being cylindrical and frayed at the ends. 



Spicules. — Spined strongyles 250 to 300 p in length and 

 3 to 12 p in breadth, the dermal spicules being the more 

 slender. Styles smooth, straight, or slightly curved, 245 to 

 1380 p in length and 4 to 12 /x in breadth. Smooth stron- 

 gyles straight, averaging about 1085 by 12 p. 



Rhaphides 150 to 200 p in length and about 1 p in thick- 

 ness ; trichodragmata 150 to 200 p in length and about 6 to 

 12 fi in thickness. 



The new species, which is only placed in Tedania pro- 

 visionally, should probably come under a new genus near 

 Tedania, but differing from it in having spined diactinal 

 megascleres in the choanosome. The contorted megascleres 

 call to mind those of certain Axinellid sponges. 



Locality. Fuafatu, 50-70 fms. 



Chondropsis, Carter (6, p. 122). 

 Ghondropsis ceratosus, sp. n. (PI. XV. fig. 3, a-c.) 



Two specimens. Sponge incrusting. Colour reddish 

 brown ; texture soft and elastic. 



