1904.] SPONGES OF THE GEXUS LEUCOSOLENIA. 371 



counts foi' nothing. Haeckel's figvire of fabriGii, evidently much 

 i-econstructecl and embellished, may be taken to represent an 

 arborescent specimen of complicata. 



Secondly, Haeckel's ^Tpeciea Ascuhnis f«'m« to appears to me to be 

 founded simply on the converse variation of complicata — that is 

 to say, on specimens {Olynthus-iorniH) in which triradiates were 

 scarce. Here also we have a " connexive Varietiit," Ascandra 

 armata. There is nothing in Haeckel's description to separate 

 this species from complicata. Haeckel's two varieties of Asculmis 

 armata, named by him var. norvegica and var. 2)ocillu'in, are formed 

 on variations in the length of the gastral rays, which can be found 

 in any specimen of the sponge *. 



I consider it also highly pi'obable that Haeckel's Ascyssa HAiufera 

 will prove, when re-examined, to be a specimen of this species. 

 Since in Leiicosolenia the monaxons are always the first spicules 

 to appear at the metamoi'phosis, every species of Leucosolenia is at 

 first an " Ascyssa." 



Haeckel further made two varieties of comjjlicata. The first he 

 named hispida, which was characterised by having the •' lateral rays 

 straight oi- only slightly cui-ved ; monaxons also slightly curved, 

 with lance-head scarcely distinct." The second, named amwboides, 

 has " lateral I'ays strongly curved in the form of an S ; monaxons 

 also slightly curved, with lance-head shai-ply distinct." Since 

 all the variations of the spicules mentioned can be found in any 

 specimen, it is not necessary to cumber taxonomy with these 

 names. 



Breitfuss, in his memoii's on calcareous sponges [2-5], seems to 

 have consistently confused tliis species with Clathrina contorta ; 

 he has certainly done so, as pointed out below, in his ' Catalogue 

 of the Calcarea in the Berlin Museum' [31. In his work upon the 

 calcareous sponge-faiuia of the White Sea [2] he figures (pi. i. fig. 1), 

 undei' the name Ascandra contorta, a sponge which is certainly not 

 the species with which it is identified, but is clearly a Leucosolenia, 

 and resembles the oi-dinary arborescent form of complicata. The 

 description of the spiculation is inadequate even for determining 

 the genus, but, so far as it goes, agi-ees with L. complicata. 



The diagnostic features of this species are : — (1) the elongation 

 of the unpaired ray of the triradiate systems i-elatively to the 

 lateral rays ; (2) the presence of two distinct forms of monaxons — 

 the first small, straight, slender, usually without a barb at the 

 distal extremity; the second large, curved, thick, usually with a 

 distinct barb : the former ai-e often scarce, but nevei- apparently 

 entirely lacking, pace Haeckel. 



* Haeckel at first considered the Spongia pocilltim of O. F. Miiller (1776, Zool. 

 Dan. Prodr. p. 256) and Fabricius (1780, Faun. Greenland, p. 44'9) to be identical 

 with Asculmis armata; but as it is quite impossible to identii'j Sponqia pocillum 

 from their descriptions, it must be considered a nomeu nudum, of no systematic 

 importance. 



24* 



