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, is a tangled 

 problem, one, indeed, which I feel some diffidence in approaching. 

 I 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 fi'om 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 wiitten contorta 

 Bwk. or contorta H. ? Pending the constitution of the International 

 N^omenclature Tribunal, in order to settle this important point, I 

 content myself in following Haeckel in calling it contorta Bwk. 



(3) Ascetta sjnnosa Lend, is probably the young form, without 

 monaxons, of contorta. 



I arrive therefore at the following synonymy and diagnosis : — 



Clathrina CONTORTA (Bowerbank). 



? Narcloa spongiosa Kolliker *, 1864, Icones Histologicae, Abth. i.. 

 pj). 63, 64, pi. vii. fig. 10, pi. ix. figg. 6-8. 



Leucosolenia contorta Bowerbank 1866, Mon. Brit. Spong. ii. 

 pp. 29-32 ; 1874, op. cit. iii. pp. 7-8, pi. iii. figg. 5-10. 



Leucosolenia {Narcloa) contorta Gray, 1867, P. Z. S. p. 555. 



Ljcucosolenia [Leuciricc) contortci Haeckel, 1870, Jen. Zeitschr. 

 V. p. 243. 



Ascccndra contorta Haeckel, 1872, Kalkschwamme, ii. pp. 91- 

 93, iii. pi. 14. figg. 6 rt-6 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, pi. viii. figg. 2, 16, 21, 22. 



Leucosolenia contorta. Topsent, 1891, Arcli. Zool. Exp. (2) ix. 

 p. 525 ; Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xvi. p. 128 ; 1892, Result. 0am- 

 pagnes Sci. Albert V\ fasc. ii. p. 22 ; 1894, Rev. Biol. Nord 

 France, vii. pp. 7 & 22. 



Clathrina contorta Minchin, 1896, Ann. k, Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) 

 xviii. p. 359. 



* Nardoa spongiosa Kolliker lias been put by Haeckel as a synonym of either 

 Ascaltis cerebrum or A. gegenhmiri,'hvLt the figui-es of the external form, no less than 

 tliose of the spiculation , given by Kolliker, seem to me to indicate that the author 

 was dealing with the spinosa-ioxm of contorta. I have discussed this point elsewhere 

 (Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. n. s. xl. p. 533, footnote). 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1905, Yol. II. No. II. 2 



