SPONGES OF BEAUFORT (N. C.) HARBOR AND VICINITY. 157 
Levinsen and Lundbeck (Lundbeck, 1905, p. 6) regard the distinction between chela 
and ancora as so fundamental that they use it in distributing the species into genera, 
species with chele being assigned to one genus, species with ancore to another. Dendy 
apparently does not support this practice, for he includes in the same genus (1916, p. 
126) a form, Psammochela elegans, with isochele (they are so designated, and the figures 
show three palmate teeth and no additional ale) and one, Desmacidon psammodes Hent- 
schel, with ancore. Hentschel, on the other hand, uses the distinction, at any rate 
in some cases, that of Desmacidon-Homeodictya, e. g., (Hentschel, 1911). Considering 
the existence of small cheloids, it seems to us that the distinction is one which can not 
be rigidly used in distinguishing genera. 
Subfamily ECTYONINZ. 
Skeletal fibers, or spicular tracts, with echinating spicules which are character- 
istically spinose (acanthostyles). 
Microciona Bowerbank. 
Sponge body incrusting, or the incrustation may develop lobes and with continued 
growth become a complex, branched, ascending mass. Skeleton originally a basal 
plate bearing short, upright, plumose columns. In older forms the skeleton becomes 
an internal reticulum of spiculo-fiber, beset with short, plumose, radial fibers which 
represent the upright columns of the incrusting phase. Megascleres monactinal; the 
chief spicules smooth styles, the echinating spicules smaller and more or less spinose. 
Microscleres isochele, often accompanied by toxas and sometimes by sigmata. 
Microciona prolifera Verrill. (Pl. LXII, figs. 31, 33; Pl. LXIII, figs. 35, 36; Pl. LXVI, fig. 57a, 
b, c, d, e.) 
Microciona prolifera Verrill and Smith, 1874, p. 447. 
Microciona prolifera Wilson, 1902, p. 396. 
Microciona prolifera Wilson, 1911, p. 3. 
The sponge when young forms thin incrustations on oyster shells, wharf piles, etc. As it grows 
older there rise up crooked, irregular lobes (Pl. LXIII, fig. 36). Asthe sponge grows older, the growth 
and formation of lobes may continue. This continued growth accompanied by branching and anas- 
tomosis will ultimately produce an intricately branched sponge (Pl. LXIII, fig. 35). Specimens of this 
type may reach a height of 150 millimeters. 
The oscula are small apertures scattered here and there over the surface in general. They lead 
into canals which extend tangentially just beneath the dermal membrane. ‘The pores are irregularly 
scattered in considerable abundance over the surface and lead into subdermal spaces. Thus the cavi- 
ties which immediately underlie the dermal membrane are of two kinds, some afferent and some effer- 
ent. In the lobes of young specimens and in older branched specimens these superficial spaces com- 
municate with abundant canals which ramify throughout the sponge interior (PI. LXII, figs. 31 and 33). 
Spicules—Megascleres: (1) Styles (Pl. LXVI, fig. 57a, 6), smooth and slightly curved, measuring 
150 to soon by 8 to 12 in an incrustation; 150 to 3804 by 8 to 14m in one of the lobes of a young 
specimen; and 150 to 380u by 8 to 16uin an older branched sponge. The styles frequently have slightly 
enlarged heads and sometimes the heads are beset with very minute spines. (2) Small spinose styles 
80to toon by 6 to 8u, which frequently have slightly enlarged heads (fig. 57c). Large numbers of very 
slender young megascleres are found throughout the sponge. Microscleres: (3) Isochele, 12 to 16p 
long (fig. 57d). (4) Toxas, 10 to 4op long (fig. 57e). Wilson (loc. cit.) records the microscleres, espe- 
cially the toxas, as scanty in Beaufort specimens. We find that the granular sponge tissue tends to 
obscure the microscleres and that in partially macerated sections they may be found scattered in con- 
siderable abundance. 
110307°—21——11 
