572 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
Stylorrhiza extends as far south as Kerguelen Island, where it is abundant. The 
Renieridse amount to about thirty species, of which five are new. The Chalinidse comprise 
about twenty species, but are not as a whole in a very satisfactory state of preservation ; 
Pachychalina, with three new species, is the only genus of much interest. The 
Ectyonidse are remarkably few in number. 
“ The Axinellidse are, after the Desmacidinidae, of the greatest interest. For a species 
from near Bahia having the erect slender digitate habit of the European species of 
Raspailia, but distinguished by remarkably elongate dermal spicules, blunt at one end 
and terminating at the other in three short and scarcely divergent points, and occurring 
in groups, a new genus is necessary, which will be called Thvinacophora ; 1 the main 
skeletal spicule is acerate, and the parenchyma contains bundles of slender acerate 
‘ trichites ’ ; it appears to stand to some extent between the Axinellidse and Desma- 
cidinidse. Another species of similar habit approaches the curious discoid Halicnemia 
patera of the Shetland seas so closely in spiculation as to enforce very strongly the 
doctrine that external form must be only used with the greatest caution as a. guide to 
affinity. About thirty species, of which fully one-third are undescribed, belong to the 
family. 
“ The Suberitidse (excluding Tethya, which has been relegated to the Tetractinellida 
on the ground of its spiculation and skeletal arrangement) are surprisingly scanty, con- 
sidering their abundance in both shallow and deep water in the North Atlantic area. 
They number about- thirty species. Of the essentially bathybial forms, the range 
of Trichostemma ( Radiella , Schmidt) is extended b} r the Challenger collection from 
the North Sea and equatorial Atlantic to the equatorial Indo-Pacific area, whence comes 
a new species. Sceptrella ( Latrunculia , Bocage) is represented by two new species from 
the southern hemisphere, in one of which the outer end of the characteristic sceptre-like 
spicule is prolonged into a spike. Bursulina muta, Schmidt, which is closely related 
to Polymastia brevis of Bowerbank, extends to the North American Atlantic coast, 
Thecaphora to the Tristan da Cunha group of islands. 
“ General Distribution. — The most prolific localities are the neighbourhood of Bahia, 
the southern and western coasts of Patagonia (distinguished by the abundance of 
individuals of Alebion and Tedania), the Philippine Islands (a very varied fauna), and 
(as already shown by the investigations of the £ Alert ’) Torres Strait, also Kerguelen Island 
(especially Renieridse and Suberiticlse). But little of striking novelty was obtained in the 
Atlantic; on the other hand, at the few (eight) very deep Stations in the Pacific which 
produced Monaxonida, the captures were almost exclusively new Desmacidines of the 
important genera Chondrocladia and Cladorrhiza mentioned above, almost every 
Station having a species peculiar to it. 
“ Some idea of the proportions in which Monaxonida occur at different depths may be 
1 a three-pronged fork. 
