1905. | SPONGE CLATHRINA CONTORTA. 17 
From the foregoing it will be seen, I think, that the name- 
question, in the case of the species under consideration, isa tangled 
problem, one, indeed, which I feel some diffidence in approaching. 
IT could wish, in fact, as I have said elsewhere, that there were in 
existence some sort of International Hague Tribunal to which 
these knotty points of nomenclature could be referred for arbitra- 
tion and authoritative settlement. In the absence, however, of 
any such body, I extract from the facts above set forth the 
following conclusions :-— 
(1) Bowerbank’s Leucosolenia contorta was a jumble of different 
species, and his description could not be used for identification of 
any particular species. Hence Leucosolenia contorta Bowerbank 
is a nomen nudum, of no systematic validity. 
(2) Haeckel’s Ascandra contorta, though not in all respects 
correctly described, can be applied to an existing species of Ascon, 
which can be identified by his description. This I consider the 
true contorta: ought the species, however, to be written contorta 
Bwk.or contorta H.? Pending the constitution of the International 
Nomenclature Tribunal, in order to settle this important point, I 
content myself in following Haeckel in calling it contorta Bwk. 
(3) Ascetta spinosa Lend. is probably the young form, without 
monaxons, of contorta. 
IT arrive therefore at the following synonymy and diagnosis :— 
CLATHRINA CoNTORTA (Bowerbank). 
? Nardoa spongiosa Kolliker *, 1864, [cones Histologice, Abth. 1. 
pp. 63, 64, pl. vil. fig. 10, pl. ix. fige. 6-8. 
Leucosolenia contorta Bowerbank 1866, Mon. Brit. Spong. 11. 
pp. 29-32; 1874, op. cit. 111. pp. 7-8, pl. 11. figg. 5-10. 
Leucosolenia (Nardoa) contorta Gray, 1867, P. Z. 8. p. 555. 
Leucosolenia (Leuciria) contorta Haeckel, 1870, Jen. Zeitschr. 
v. p. 243. 
Ascandra contorta Haeckel, 1872, Kalkschwiimme, ii. pp. 91— 
93, 11. pl. 14. fige. 6 a6 e. 
? Ascaltis contorta Hanitsch, 1890, Tr. Biol. Soc. L’pool, iv. 
pp. 195 & 233. 
Ascetta spinosa Lendenfeld, 1891, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. liii. 
pp. 203-205, pl. vii. figg. 2, 16, 21, 22. 
Leucosolenia contorta Topsent, 1891, Arch. Zool. Exp. (2) ix. 
p. 925; Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xvi. p. 128; 1892, Résult. Cam- 
pagnes Sci. Albert 1°, fase. 11. p. 22; 1894, Rev. Biol. Nord 
France, vii. pp. 7 & 22. 
Clathrina contorta Minchin, 1896, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) 
Xvlil. p. 399. 
* Nardoa spongiosa Kolliker has been put by Haeckel as a synonym of either 
Ascaltis cerebrum or A. gegenbawri, but the figures of the external form, no less than 
those of the spiculation, given by Kolliker, seem to me to indicate that the author 
was dealing with the spinosa-form of contorta. I have discussed this point elsewhere 
(Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. n.s. xl. p. 533, footnote). 
Proc. Zoou. Soc.—1905, Vou. II. No. II. 2 
