76 



MR. H. J. CARTER ON A COLLECTION OF 



sp. ?, spinous acerates and little sceptrellse like those of Alectona 

 Wallichii (olim Qummina mendose Corticium, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 1879, vol. iii. pp. 353-354, pi. xxix. figs. 5-9), but with both 

 ends of the shaft shortened and inflated instead of extended and 

 pointed, and all the inflations microspined ; Reniera digitata ; and 

 a variety of Halichondria incrustans. All these species have 

 become so mixed up together by the invasion of a small Annelid 

 whose tubes, about ^ T inch thick, are chiefly composed of tbem, 

 that it is impossible, where the species are not previously known, 

 to distinguish their spiculations with certainty in this mounted 

 " residue," where they are of course all mixed together; hence the 

 notes of interrogation after Cliona stellifera and C. seep trellif era, 

 the characters of whose spiculations, although regarded as those 

 of new species, are also conjectural. * 



Cliona bacillieera, n. sp. 



This is another form, which has riddled an old oyster-shell 

 that was incorporated with other shell-detritus at the base of 

 Esperia indica (no. 54), making its appearance on the surface as 

 usual in little circular heads (white when dry), in which are found 

 three spicular forms, viz. : — 1, skeletal, pin-like, with straight, 

 smooth, conical shaft, pointed at one end and terminated at the 

 other by a subglobular head, which is wider than the shaft, about 52 

 by ll-6000th inch in its greatest dimensions ; 2, acerate, fusiform, 

 sharp-pointed, bent or curved'in the centre and finely microspined, 

 about 23 by H-GOOOth inch in its greatest diameters ; 3, flesh- 

 spicule, bacilliform, like a minute caraway seed in form, slightly 

 curved, fusiform, and also finely microspined, about 2-6000ths 

 inch long. No. 1, as usual, generally forms the external portion 

 of the head with the points outwards, and nos. 2 and 3 are 

 plentifully mixed together at the base. 



Loc. King Island. 



Obs. Of course the spiculation is the chief distinctive character 

 in these excavating sponges, whose burrowing forms are so much 

 j M m ofsi instances that there is hardly any other diJl'erence 

 between them. Where alone, as in this case, the species, although 

 new, is easily recognized. Cliona bacillijwa is closely allied to, 

 if not the eaine as, Cliona Carpenteri, Hancock (Ann. & M;ig. 

 Nat. Hist. 1807, vol xix. p. 24], pi. viii. fig. 4). 



J would here observe that the number of " Ecceolonida " is 



