Sponges from South Australia. HI 



Forcepia colonensis, at least this is exemplified in tlie next 

 species, viz. F. crassandwrata, wherein the anchorate is the 

 most prominently developed. 



Forcepia crassanchorata, n. sp. (PI. IV. fig. 3, a-g.) 



Specimen dry, round, cake-like, compressed, bearing the 

 appearance of a beach-rolled specimen. Consistence now 

 light. Colour fawn. Surface rough, reticulated. Pores not 

 seen ('? dried up). Vents scattered here and there. Internal 

 structure like "crumb of bread." Spicules of four forms, 

 viz. : — 1, skeletal, acuate, often subpinlike, curved, smooth, 

 abruptly sharp-pointed (fig. 3, a) ; 2, also skeletal, slightly 

 curved, smooth, fusiform, inflated pin-like at each end (fig. 3, b) 7 

 both about the same size, viz. 66 by 2-6000ths in. in their 

 greatest dimensions ; 3, forceps-like spicule, very thin, micro- 

 spined on the body, smooth and finely pointed at the extre- 

 mities, arms of equal length, 19-6000ths in. long, extremities 

 very close, that is, separated only for about 1-6000 in. (fig. 3,c) • 

 4, equianchorate, very short and very stout, nearly as broad as 

 long, arms ?-petaloid, 6-6000ths in. long by 5-6000ths in. broad 

 (fig. 3, e, _/'). All the spicules equally abundant throughout the 

 tissue, together with a minute equianchorate about 3-6000ths 

 in. long (fig. 3, g), and a paraboliform spicule like a bihamate 

 about the same length (fig. 3, d) ; but not being satisfied that 

 these are independent forms, as they may be ill-developed ones 

 of No. 4, I have not included them in the spiculation. Size 

 of specimen, 6^ x 5 x 3 in. 



Hab. Marine. 



hoc. Port Elliot, South Australia. 



Obs. This specimen, which is among the dry sponges 

 purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum from the 

 Executors of the late Dr. Bowerbank, must, when fresh, have 

 probably been 12 in. in diameter, as in desiccation a fresh 

 sponge shrinks to about half its natural size. From its rolled 

 or rounded form it was evidently a beach-specimen, and coming 

 from Port Elliot, was obtained from the same coast, and not 

 very far from that last mentioned. In appearance and struc- 

 ture it very much resembles our Halichondria incrustans. Of 

 course the forcipiform flesh-spicule is the most characteristic 

 feature, but instead of being very large, like that of F. colo- 

 nensiSj it is very minute, fine, and delicate, while it is in such 

 abundance and lying so close together, that it looks as if it had 

 been developed in groups in a cell, after the manner of a tri- 

 curvate, and might be easily mistaken for " trichites." So 

 delicate and fine are the shaft and its spination, that it is with 

 difficulty seen under a power of 250 diameters. On the other 



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