Stephens — Report on Sponges collected off the Coast of Ireland. 9 



The Irish species approaches even more closely a sponge found on the 

 beach at Vaucouver Island, and assigned by Lambe (9) to Carter's species, 

 but which, as Professor Dendy has already pointed out (3, p. 162), is no doubt 

 a distinct species. The same kinds of spicules are present in this sponge as in 

 the Irish specimen, but here again the measurements are different. The 

 subtylostyli in the Vancouver sponge are shorter and thicker, the anisochelae 

 longer, while the toxa, differing in shape, are only half the length of the 

 corresponding spicules in the new species. 



The remaining species assigned to this sub-genus are — pcnici/lium 

 Lendenfeld, see Kallmann (6), macrodgma Lindgren (10), moluccensis Thiele 

 (15), bidentata Dendy (3), repens Whitelegge (19), dichela Hentschel (7). 

 None of these possesses toxa, and all are further marked off from the new 

 species by differences in the form and measurements of the spicules. The 

 new species is the first representative of the sub-genus which has been 

 found in the Atlantic Ocean, those previously described having been taken 

 off Ceylon, or in various parts of the Pacific Ocean. 



Desmacidon fruticosum (Montagu). 



E.D.S. Survey. Station 133, Dingle Bay, 40 fathoms. 



Several pieces of this sponge, now recorded for the first time within the 

 Irish area, are in the collection. The largest piece is 80 mm. in height and 

 105 mm. in its greatest breadth. It is very similar in shape to the specimen 

 figured by Bowerbank (1, vol. iii, PI. LXI). 



Forcepia fragilis, n. sp. Plate I, fig. 2. 



E.I.A. Exp., 1888. Log 69, 51° 1' N., 11° 50' W., 750 fathoms. 



The sponge is not attached to any support. It is somewhat oval in 

 outline, and measures 25 mm. by 18 mm. by 15 mm. It is very fragile in 

 texture, and its surface is damaged. 



Skeleton. — The main skeleton consists of a loose, irregular network of 

 styli. Sometimes only two or three spicules lie side by side to form the 

 meshes, but usually the styli are multiserially arranged. The arrangement 

 of the dermal skeleton cannot be made out, as the surface of the sponge is 

 rubbed away. 



Spicules. — (1) The styli are slightly and somewhat irregularly curved. At 

 one end they taper to a short point; the other end is rounded. They measure 

 0'6-0-77mm. in length by 0-01S-0-021 mm. 



(2) The dermal spicules are tylota, measuring 0-4-0-45 mm. in length by 

 O-OOo-O'OOS mm One end of these spicules is sometimes rather more 

 rounded than the other, but the difference is slight. 



R.I.A. PROC, VOL. XXXIV., SECT. R. [B] 



