SPONGES OF BEAUFORT (N. C.) HARBOR AND VICINITY. 
& 
By 
W. C. GEORGE, Late Instructor in Zoology, University of North Carolina, 
and 
H. V. WILSON, Professor of Zoology, University of North Carolina. 
a 
Contribution from the United States Fisheries Biological Station, Beaufort, N. C. 
& 
INTRODUCTION. 
The following report includes a description of the forms of sponges which are pres- 
ent and in any degree conspicuous in the Beaufort area, The collections were made 
from time to time, especially between the years 1904 and 1907. Doubtless additional 
forms will be recorded. It is especially probable that intensive examination of ‘‘oyster 
rocks”’ and scattered shells will result in the discovery of other small, inconspicuous 
species, comparable in this respect to Pleraplysilla latens, herein described. Consider- 
ing the interest and value for experimentation of Pleraplysilla, a horny sponge of exceed- 
ingly simple character, such a search would be well worth undertaking. Collecting 
along the sea beaches has been incidental. Most of the material so collected proved 
unfit for precise study. Such sponges, in fact, are usually macerated, the microscleres 
lost, and the cellular tissues destroyed. The “Fishing Bank” off Beaufort Inlet has 
yielded specimens of four species. Collecting here, however, has been casual only, 
and the bank is probably the home of many more species. This bank is of a coralline 
nature, with a fauna which appears to be West Indian. It lies about 20 miles south- 
west of Beaufort and has been charted by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries steamer Fish 
Hawk. 
Of the 17 forms described in this paper, those especially available for biological 
investigations of an experimental nature are species of Cliona, Suberites, Tetilla, Ren- 
iera, Stylotella, Lissodendoryx, Microciona, and Pleraplysilla, representing chiefly the 
two great monaxonid groups, but including also a tetractinellid species and a horny 
sponge. It is quite possible that some of the other forms, especially the species of Spir- 
astrella, Esperiopsis, and Hircinia, might be made use of for such investigations. These 
species occur in some abundance on the ‘‘Fishing Bank" and perhaps nearer the inlet. 
With care, living specimens, or, at any rate, living pieces which would answer the pur- 
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