34 



Memoirs of the Indian Museum. 



[Voi,. V, 



being as yet complete. It is mainly this consideration that has induced me to 

 describe the species as distinct, but no other sponge in the subgenus has skeleton- 

 spicules of quite the same nature. 



Suborder ASTROMONAXONELIJDA. 

 Family CLIONIDAE. 

 Genus CLIONA, Grant. 

 1888. ■ Cliona, Topsent, Arch. Zool. expérim. (2) V bis, p. 76. 

 1891. ,, id., ibid., (2) IX, p. 556. 

 1915. „ Annandale, Reo. Ind. Mus. XI, p. 1. 



Elsewhere I have given a key to the Indian species of the genus (1915, p. 5). 



O 







o 



O 



Fig. 4. — Cliona vastifica, Hancock. 

 Spicules of a specimen from the oyster-beds at Manikpatna. 



Cliona vastifica, Hancock. 



(Plate iv, fig. 7.) 



1900. Cliona vastifica, Topsent, Arch. Zool. expérim. (3) VIII, p. 56, pi. ii, 



figs. 3—9. 

 1915. Cliona vastifica, Annandale, Rec. Ind. Mus. XI, p. 8. 



A full description and synonomy of this well-known species will be found in 

 Topsent's paper of 1900. I give here (fig. 4) a figure of the spicules of a specimen 

 from the outer channel of the Chilka I^ake. 



As I have recently pointed out (1915, p. 8) C. vastifica is the commonest species 

 of boring sponge on the coasts of India in quite shallow water ; it is cosmopolitan in 

 its distribution. In the Bay of Bengal it is very abundant ; apparently it does great 

 injury to oysters and similar bivalve molluscs both there and in the Persian Gulf. 

 In the seas of France it is, according to Topsent, less vigorous than C. celata, Grant; 



