266 
This sponge is massive to subglobular and 
is over 1 cm. in diameter. Its color is dirty 
gray. The surface consistency is hard, almost 
stony (due to the sterraster armor), but some- 
what flexible. The interior is softer and more 
compressible. The surface is smooth and 
lipostomous. 
The ectosome is a fibrous cortex nearly 
1 mm. thick and is densely packed with ster- 
rasters. The endosome shows a fundamental 
tendency to radiate architecture but realizes 
this structure only vaguely. 
Fig. 15. Geodia gihherella: spicules, from camera 
lucida drawings. A, Oxea; B, plagiotriaene; C, sterrast- 
ers; D, oxyeuasters; E, spheraster; F, sterraster. (The 
smaller scale for A, B, and C shows 100 microns by 
tens. The larger scale matches the more highly magni- 
fied D, E, and F and shows 100 microns by tens.) 
The megascleres are sharp-pointed oxeas 
15 by 620 ju and plagiotriaenes with rhabds 
18 by 410 jx and clads 60 long. The micro- 
scleres include the large sterrasters which are 
characteristic of Geodia, but not as large as 
they are in most of the species of this genus; 
they have a diameter of only about 37 m and 
are nearly spherical. The mature sterrasters are 
practically all in the cortex, but their sharp- 
rayed juvenile forms, as usual, occur sparingly 
in the endosome. Additional microscleres of 
two sorts also occur— oxyeuasters 6 /x in 
diameter and oxyspherasters only 3 ijl in 
diameter. The euasters are abundantly present 
in a thin layer over the outer surface of the 
sterraster armor. 
Lamarck (1815: 333) described Geodia 
gihherosa, the type of the genus. It is an 
abundant West Indian species, not certainly 
recorded from any other locality. It and this 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. V, July, 1951 'j 
Hawaiian species stand out from the rest of • 
the genus for lack of anatriaenes and pro- 
triaenes and for the possession of minute . 
spherasters. Clearly gihherosa is the nearest 
relative to gihherella. But the West Indian 
Geodia has large (30 ju) oxyeuasters. 
The species name which is here selected is 
a diminutive of 
Erylus proximus Dendy 
Fig. 16 
This species is represented by U. S. 
National Museum, Register Number 22786 
(My No. H. 57), collected February 19, 1948, 
by dredging at a depth of 50 meters in the 
open ocean 2.5 kilometers south of Pearl 
Harbor, Oahu. This species is not common, 
but is widely distributed in the Hawaiian 
archipelago. Hiatt collected it (his No. 
I-38a G) in August, 1945, at Halape. 
This is an amorphous sponge, often grow- 
ing in interstices of dead coral or cracks in 
rocks. In life the ectosome was dark gray to - 
black, the endosome a paler gray or drab. The 
consistency was cartilaginous. The surface is 
microtuberculate. The pores are about 70 
in diameter and 300 to 400 n apart. The rare 
oscules are about 1.5 mm. in diameter. 
The ectosome is a fibrous cortex densely 
Fig. 16. Erylus proximus: spicules, from camera 
lucida drawings. A, Oxea; B, tetraxon; C, aspidaster; 
D, tylaster; E, microxea. (The smaller scale for A and 
B shows 100 microns by tens. The larger scale matches 
the more highly magnified C, D, and E and shows 100 
microns by tens.) 
