von ci 5.] Notes on the Freshwuter Fauna of India. 187 
8. 
25. Notes on the Freshwater Fuuna of India. No. V.—Some 
fa mals found associated with +e 9 wanes rteri in Calcuttu.— 
. AnnanDAte, D.Sc., O.M ZS. (With one plate.) 
— ral Insects and Cru are known to live temporarily 
or permanently in the canals ry phydatia fluviatilis in Europe ; 
bik t very little has been publis i yet the incole or 
commensals of the tropical Freshwater S es. During the past 
winter and spring I have examined in Galoaitx a large number of 
specimens of the common Spongilla carteri, in order to discover 
what animals live in association with it. Such animals prove to 
numerous and of very varied kinds. Several species, of which I 
have little to say, may be noticed briefly. A small fish of the 
genus Gobius (which I will describe later) lays its eggs in de- 
pressions on the surface of the Sponge towards the end of the 
cold weather, and pape of the higher Crustacea ' probably take 
shelter temporarily in the same position. ‘Io descend in the 
animal scale, I have found considerable numbers of at least one 
species of Planarian actually in the interior of the Sponge. These, 
been an attraction to the secnginge although most of them were 
too big to fall an easy prey to the latter. In Sponges of the 
ies I have seen, at all times rari winter and spring, minute 
onapane of the family Anguillulide, while in one, which I 
sted in February, [ found a larva of a Gordiid worm, lying 
at 
ning of April, I cam e across a worm of the e genus Dero, which, 
although fully adolt,: was probably a chance guest also. It is 
evident that a Jose, porous mass like the skeleton of Spongilla 
cartert offers attractive retreat to any animal of sufficiently 
small sso sail of cea habits which may chance to find it. 
There ts and a Worm, however 
whose 
connection with the Sponge is of a more settled thon ugh not a 
rmanent nature. I will first deal with the Worm, of which a 
So follows. 
1 Rai Bahadur R. B. Sanyal in his excellent little book Hours with 
Nature says that in some parts of Bengal aaa, water sponges are known as 
“shrim nets,” because shrimps _ elter in them. The same reir 
4st tells me thst a number of you i takhoe (Cerberus rhyncops) bo 
his aquarium in Calcutta, took ihslter, the day after birth, in the sabual 
canals of a sponge at the bottom of the tank, 
