On new African Phlehotomtc Diptera. 401 



it always takes in the same kin*l of foreign matter. The 

 spoiif^es from widely different localities and depths are in tiiis 

 respect the same. We must therefore assume that a sponge 

 selects from the numerous foreign bodies which fall on and 

 adhere to its surface a certain kind only, and uses them to 

 build up its fibres." 



In conclusion, the case of Tedania conimixta deserves a 

 word of mention in that it shows that the inclusion of the 

 sand-grains may occur as a result of more than one kind of 

 activity of the sponge-tissues. In this species, of which I 

 was fortunate enough to obtain a fragment through the 

 kindness of Mr. Kirkpatrick, the body is divisible into (i.) an 

 upper region, which has a well-developed spicular skeleton 

 with a few sand-grains of small size scattered in the flesh and 

 apparently taken in at the upper surface of the sponge, and 

 (ii.) a lower region, in wdiich the sj)icular skeleton is still 

 present and more irregular, and in which numerous foreign 

 bodies of various kinds and often of large size occur. So 

 abundant is the foreign matter, and so large the size of many 

 of the fragments, that there can hardly be any question of 

 these included substances having passed through the upper 

 region of the sponge ; rather, tlie sponge has grown down- 

 wards, including as it grew the constituents of its substratum. 

 Tlius both the tissues of the free surface and of the basal 

 surface appear in this case to engulf foreign matter. 



LXV. — New African Phlebotumic Diptera in the British 

 Museum {Natural Histori/). — Part II. Tabunidce (con- 

 tinued). By Ernest E. Austen *. 



Genus Hematopota, Meigen. 



The following pages contain descriptions of twelve new 

 species from Tropical Africa belonging to this genus, and at 

 least as many more, examples of which arc included in the 

 National Collection, have yet to be descril)od. Of most of 

 these, descriptions will appear in the next instalment of this 

 scries of papers. Owing to the complicated nature of the 

 wing-markings in Hcematopota, which in most cases present 

 valuable specific characters, the drawing-up of recognizable 



* For Part I. see Ann. X. Mul'. Nat. Hist. >pr. 8, vol. i. (March 1908 

 pp. 209-228. 



