124 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol. V, 



The animal is extremely shy and in captivity never extends its tentacles for 

 more than a few minutes at a time. If a healthy colony be observed in favourable 

 conditions the different individuals will be seen to protrude and retract the lopho- 

 phore frequently, but not either rhythmically or in unison. 



Larvae of the Cyphonautes type were taken in our tow-nets at Rambha in 

 January, but were very minute and did not provide any definite specific characters. 



M. hippopus is in the broadest sense a cosmopolitan species and seems to be 

 equally at home in brackish and in salt water. It has been found in the Cochin 

 backwaters and in the estuaries of the Ganges, in pools of brackish water, in lagoons 

 and on the open coast of Orissa ; off the British coasts it occurs both in brackish 

 ditches, in the littoral zone and in deep water. It is abundant all over the Chilka 

 Lake and flourishes at all seasons, in fresh, brackish and salt water; on the leaves of 

 Halophila, the stems of Potamogeton, on reeds, on rocks and stones, on the shells 

 (living and dead) of Purpura and in the deserted burrows of Teredo in a wooden post. 

 On rocks it is frequently overwhelmed by the rapid growth of sponges, but often 

 succeeds for a period in preserving for itself a bare space in the midst of Laxosuberites 

 lacustris, which is a very thin encrusting form. 



Ctenostomata. 



Division PALUDICELLINA. 



Family Victoreujdae. 



Genus VICTORELLA, Kent. 



1911. Victorella, Annandale, Faun. Brit. Ind., Freshw. Sponges, etc., p. 194. 



1911. Victorella, id., Rec. Ind. Mus. VI, p. 195. 



It is perhaps best, as suggested in my volume in the Fauna of British India, to 

 regard this genus as representing a family distinguished from the Paludicellidae by 

 the fact that there is only a single funiculus which is not connected with the gonads. 

 Braem l has recently shown that in Paludicella (as well as in Victorella and occasion- 

 ally in Pottsiella) secondary buds may be produced in addition to the three primary 

 ones characteristic of the division, and Pottsiella, though it resembles Victor ella in 

 external characters, agrees with Paludicella in internal anatomy. The separation 

 of the two families must, therefore, depend on the structure and position of the 

 gonads and funicular strands, and the Victorellidae must for the present be accepted 

 as generically monotypic. 



As I have pointed out in the paper cited (1911), the so-called species of Victorella 

 are very closely allied and should perhaps be regarded as local races, varieties or 

 phases of a single species. The form common in the Gangetic delta appears to be 

 indistinguishable from one described from Central Asia and is also very doubtfully 

 distinct from an African form found in Tanganyika and in the Egyptian salt lake 

 Birket-el-Qurum 



1 Archiv f. Hydrobiol. und Planktonkunde IX, 1913-14. Unfortunately the copy of this paper in 

 my possession has been mislaid, and I am unable to refer to the page. 



