Mr. T. Higgin on a new Species o/'Luffaria. 223 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE V. 



Fig. 1. Tysius amplipennis ; 1 «, head. 



Fig. 2. Phrynixm terreus; 2 a, head (the eye is much too small). 



Fig. 3. Cecyropa tychioides. 



Fig. 4. Inophlceus Traversii. 



Fig. 5. Actizeta albata. 



Fig. 6. Phycosecis discoidea ; 6 a, antenna ; 6 b, fore tibia and tarsus ; 6 c, 



maxilla with its palpus ; Qd, mentum with the lower lip and its 



palpi. 

 Fig. 7. Stenoputes pallidus. 

 Fig. 8. Xyloteles costatus. 

 Fig. 9. Xuthodes punctipennis. 

 Fig. 10. Syrphetodes marginatus. 

 Fig. 11. Right fore tibia and tarsus of Actizeta albata (the artist has 



placed it in a position to represent the left). 11 a, antenna ; 



but the basal joint has been unaccountably omitted. 

 Fig. 12. Head of Cyttalia griseipila. 



XXVII. — On a new Sponge of the Genus Luffaria, from 

 Yucatan^ in the Liverpool Free Museum. By Thomas 

 Higgin, of Huyton. 



[Plate VI.] 



A remarkably fine specimen of one of the trumpet-shaped 

 sponges has recently been presented to the Liverpool Free 

 Museum by Staff-Surgeon-Major Samuel Archer, stationed 

 at Belize, in the name of Dr. Barry, Staff-Surgeon at Corosal, 

 who obtained it from Ambergris Island, off the coast of Yuca- 

 tan, Gulf of Honduras ; and, thanks to the care and trouble 

 taken by these gentlemen in preserving it and transmitting it 

 to this country, it has arrived in an almost perfect state. From 

 its great size and its resemblance to a speaking-trumpet, Mr. 

 Archer has called it " Neptune's Trumpet." 



It is an undescribed species of the group of sponges to 

 which MM. Duchassaing de Fonbressin and Michelotti, in 

 their memoir on the sponges of the Caribbean Sea, gave the 

 generic name Luffaria^ from the gourd Luffa, or " vegetable 

 sponge "as it has been called, in common use in the West 

 Indies and elsewhere*. This term {Luffaria) was accepted 



* The fruit of this Cucurbitaceous plant, when denuded of its soft 

 fleshy parts, is found to have a skeleton consisting of a thickly anasto- 

 mosed mass of fibres made up of thin-walled cells, which quickly takes 

 up water, and is therefore suitable for washing-purposes. It has lately 

 been introduced into this country as an article of commerce, and is sold 

 in the druggists' shops, cut open down the side and spread out flat, as a 

 flesh -brush for use in the bath. 



16* 



