[ 349 ] 



XIV. Observations on the West-Indian Chalinine Sponges, with Descriptions of new 

 Species. By Arthur Dendy, B.Sc, F.L.S., Assistant in the Zoological Depart- 

 ment of the British Museum. {Communicated by Dr. Gunther, V.P.Z.S.) 



Received June 22nd, 1887, read June 23rd, 1887. 



[Plates LVIII.-LXIIL] 



Contents. 



Page 

 I. Introductory Remarks 349 



II. Description of Genera and Species 353 



III. Explanation of trie Plates 367 



I. Introductory Eemarks. 



JLHE Natural History Museum has recently acquired a number of very interesting 

 specimens of Chalinine Sponges from the West Indies, which, taken together with 

 those already present in the collection, may reasonably be considered fairly repre- 

 sentative of the Chalinine fauna of the locality in question. 



On looking into the scanty literature of the subject in the endeavour to find names 

 for the various species, I was only able to identify three, viz. : — Spinosella sororia, 

 Duchassaing and Michelotti, sp., Spinosella plicifera, Duchassaing and Michelotti, sp., 

 and Siphonochalina procumbens, Carter, sp., the last mentioned being represented in the 

 collection by one of the specimens examined and named by Mr. Carter himself. I 

 found, moreover, that our knowledge of the subject was in such an extremely 

 unsatisfactory condition that I resolved to include in the present paper descriptions of 

 all the West-Indian species of Chalininse represented in the collection, making a total 

 of eight species, three old and five new ; I propose also to give brief diagnoses and, 

 when necessary, some discussion of the genera under which the eight species fall. 



The Chalininse evidently form a very important element in the West-Indian sponge- 

 fauna, and it is consequently rather surprising that so very little should be known 

 about them. All the works bearing upon the subject, which can be considered of 

 any importance, are comprised in the following brief list : — 



1864. Duchassaing and Michelotti. — "Spongiaires de la Mer Carai'be/' Natuurkundige Verhande- 



lingen van de hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem. 

 1870. Oscar Schmidt. — Die Spongien des atlantischen Gebietes. 

 1877. Alpheus Hyatt. — " Revision of the North American Poriferse. — Part II.," Memoirs of the 



Boston Society of Natural History, vol. ii. pt. iv. no. v. 

 188.2. H. J. Carte?-. — " Some Sponges from the West Indies and Aeapulco in the Liverpool Free 



Museum described, with general and classificatory remarks," Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 



ser. 5, vol. ix. pp. 266, 346. 

 vol. xii. — part x. No. 1. — April, 1890. 3e 



