I9I5-J 



Fauna of the Chilka Lake : Sponges. 



47 



tylostyles have a very distinct head, which is variable in shape and may be irregular; 

 it is much more frequently spherical or symmetrically elliptical than in L. aquae- 

 dulcioris. The shapes that it may assume in the two species are shown in figures 

 8 and 10. The shaft is usually straight or slightly and regularly curved. It is 

 always slender and tapers gradually to a sharp point. There is practically no dilation 



o n 



li 



Oi 



ft 







« 



A. 



Fig. io. — Laxosuberites lacustris, sp. nov. 

 Spicules from a typical specimen, x 255. 



A. — Heads of spicules further enlarged. 



of the axial canal in the head, and this canal is never broad or conspicuous. The 

 length of the largest spicules is 0-56 to 0-58 mm., and the breadth of the thickest 

 part of the shaft o - oo8 mm., the corresponding measurements in L. aquae-dulcioris 

 being 033 mm. and 0*005 mm. 1 In L. lacustris, however, some of the shorter-spicules 



1 "0-033" in the original description (Rec. Ind. Mus. X, p. 158) is a printer's error. In some 

 specimens the spicules are smaller than in others. 



