ASTRORHIZIDAE 63 



Psamtnosphaem fusca var. testacea, Heron-Allen and Earland, 1912, etc.NSG, 1913, pp. 17-18, 



pi. ii, fig. 9. 



Psanmtosphaera testacea, Cushman, 1918, etc., FAO, 1918, p. 38, pi. xv, figs. 1-3. 



Three stations: 385 ; WS 204, 469. 



A few excellent specimens were found at Sts. WS 204 and 469, in the deep water of 

 the Scotia Sea, depth 3328-3959 m., and a single small specimen at St. 385 in Drake 

 Strait, depth 3638 m. 



81. Psammosphaera parva, Flint (SG 57). 



Eighteen stations: 167, 171, 180, 181, 362, 369; Port Lockroy; WS 199, 383, 385, 474, 476, 479, 

 483, 484, 486,496, 517. 



Widely distributed over the whole area, and very common or common at Sts. 167, 

 WS 383, 474 and 517; rare or very rare elsewhere. A double specimen was found at 

 St. WS 383. Specimens of the selective variety formed round a sponge spicule are rare, 

 probably because sponge spicules are not an important element in most of the material ; 

 they were observed at Sts. 180, 181, WS 385 and 486. 



Genus Psammophax, Rhumbler, 193 1 



82. Psammophax consociata, Rhumbler (Plate II, figs. 2-5). 



Psammophax consociata, Rhumbler, in Wiesner, 1931, FDSE, p. 81, pi. iv, figs. 38-40, pi. v, 



figs. 41-3, ?44. 



Psammophax consociata, Cushman, 1928, etc., F, 1933, p. 73; IKGF, pi. ii, fig. 7. 



Four stations: 170, 175; WS 482, 502. 



Rare or very rare at all the stations, all but one of which are in moderate depths, 100- 

 342 m. Two specimens, quite typical of Wiesner 's figs. 39, 41, were found at St. WS 502 

 in 4224 m. The finest specimens, running up to an association of five chambers, were 

 found at St. WS 482 in 100 m. 



Rhumbler's material was obtained from soundings made by the ' Gauss ' while frozen 

 in off Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, 200-385 m., where Psammophax was abundant. It was 

 not found elsewhere. He regards his genus as a transition stage between Psammosphaera 

 and Saccammina, and apparently intended to make three species of the series figured, 

 but Wiesner has grouped them all under the specific name consociata. 



Owing to the scarcity of specimens in the Discovery material it is impossible to form 

 any serious opinion on the value of Psammophax as a genus, and I am using it vnth. 

 some hesitation. Wiesner 's photographs show a remarkable diversity of form and 

 arrangement of the roughly spherical chambers. It seems to me impossible to separate 

 the earliest stage, which admittedly has no aperture, from Psammosphaera fusca, or the 

 bilocular stage, in which two individuals are joined and an aperture formed between 

 them, from what have been regarded hitherto as abnormal double shells of Psammo- 

 sphaera. Agglomerations of more than two chambers may be either nearly straight, in 

 which case, as Wiesner points out, Reophax cushmani (F 88) is very similar ; or curved, 

 when they are only separable from Sorosphaera by the greater thickness of the wall. 



