32 
ZOOLOGY OF THE FAR EAST. 
Harmer {op. cit., p. 45) has ascribed to the genus a marine species {V sibogae) from a 
depth of 0 and 32 metres in the Malay Archipelago. 
All brackish- water species as yet examined have eight tentacles, but V. sibogae has 
probably more than twenty. Its generic position seems to me doubtful. 
The genus is evidently cosmopolitan in distribution, but has not as yet been 
found in America. Definite records now exist from northern Europe, Egypt, Central 
Africa, Central Asia and India; a specimen was recently taken in the Main Island of 
Japan by Dr. A. Oka and myself. 
1907. 
1908. 
1911. 
1911. 
1911. 
1911. 
1915- 
Victorella bengalensis, Annandale. 
(PI. I, figs. 6, 7.) 
Victorella pavida, Annandale {nec Kent), Rec. Ind. Miis. I, p. 200, figs. 1-4. 
Victorella bengalensis, id., Rec. Ind. Mtis. II, p. 12, fig. i. 
Victorella bengalensis, id., Faun. Brit. Ind., Frcshw. Sponges, etc., pp. igi, 192, fig. 37 
a-f; p. 170, fig. 31. 
Victorella continentalis, Braem. Trans. Soc. Nat. St. Pet:rsb. IvXII, p. 30, figs. 18-21. 
Victorella bengalensis, Annandale, Rec. Ind. Miis. VI, p. 197, pi. xiii, figs. 3, 7, 8. 
Victorella symbiotica, id. {? nec Rousselet), ibid , p. 197, pi. xiii, fig. 6. 
Victorella bengalensis, id., Mem. Ind. Mus. V, p. 125. 
This species was abundant on sticks in the Tale Sap off Koh Yaw in January, 1916, 
in water that varied in specific gravity (corrected) from i 00625 to I'ooS. I can see no 
specific difference between specimens from India and Siam and others from the salt- 
lake Birket-el-Qurun in Egypt. The latter seem to me to agree well enough with 
Rousselet 's figure of V. symbiotica from L. Tanganyika, but Braem, who has examined 
examples from both African localities, states that there is a difference (which he 
refrains from describing) in the alimentary canal between the true V . symbiotica and 
the Egyptian form. As I have not examined 
specimens from Tanganyika and as Rousselet 
does not discuss or figure the anatomy in detail, 
I can express no opinion on this point, but 
must content myself with reproducing a draw- 
ing of the alimentary canal of V . bengalensis 
(pi. i, fig. 7). 
V. bengalensis, as I have pointed out else- 
where, is a very variable form; some colonies 
have larger zooecia and a thicker ectocyst than 
others, while environment appears to exert a 
direct effect on the growth and appearance of 
the colony. With the thickness of the zooecia 
the development of the parietal muscles is to 
some extent correlated. Specimens from Birket- 
el-Qurun have very small and delicate zoo- 
ecia. My Siamese examples on the other hand are particularly well developed in all 
-h-P- 
Fig. 7. — Victorella bengalensis. 
Central region of the alimentary canal of 
a retracted polypide in lateral view (slightly 
diagramatic). 
a = oval chamber with horny lining, c. = thick 
walled glandular tube. m. = circular muscle, oe. = 
oesophagus, p. =■ pharynx. 
