THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATUEAL HISTOEY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 

 No. 117. SEPTEMBER 1887. 



XVI. — The Sponge-fauna of Madras. A Report on a 

 Collection of Sponges obtained in the Neighbourhood of 

 Madras by Edgar Thurston^ Esq. By Arthur Dendy, 

 B.Sc, F.L.S., Assistant in tiie Zoological Department of 

 the British Museum. 



[Plates IX.-XII.] 



The specimens upon the study of which this paper is based 

 were collected in the neighbourhood of Madras by Edgar 

 Thurston, Esq., Superintendent of the Government Central 

 Museum, and forwarded by him to my colleague, Prof. F. J. 

 Bell, to whom I am indebted for the opportunity of examining 

 and describing them. 



The collection is of exceptional interest, owing to the fact 

 that it is the first which has been obtained from this parti- 

 cular locality. Indeed, our knowledge of the sponge-fauna 

 of the entire Indian Ocean is extremely deficient. This defi- 

 ciency is almost certainly due to want of investigation rather 

 than to any actual scarcity of sponges. Mr. Ridley and I 

 have already pointed out, in our Report on the Monaxonida 

 collected by H.M.S. ' Challenger,' that " this little-known 

 field will probably yield a rich harvest to whoever has 

 the good luck to thoroughly investigate it ;" and this state- 

 ment is amply borne out by Mr. Thurston's researches. 



The best-known locality for sponges in the Indian Ocean 

 Ann. & Mag.N. Hist. Ser. 5. FoZ. xx. 11 



