36 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XV, January 1961 
to specimen. Small variations in this respect 
cannot be considered grounds for differentiating 
the present specimen from H. clathrata. 
DISTRIBUTION: Australia (south coast); New 
Zealand; Campbell Islands. 
Haliclona petrosioides (Burton) 
Haliclona petrosioides Burton, 1932, p. 269, 
fig. 7. 
OCCURRENCE: Rangitoto sublittoral fringe. 
remarks: Specimens are thinly encrusting, 
up to 3 mm. thick, deep cream in colour. Sur- 
face conspicuously porose with conspicuous 
channels radiating in a stellate manner from 
small ill-defined oscules. The spiculation is iden- 
tical with that of the holotype. 
DISTRIBUTION: Tristan da Cunha (South At- 
lantic). 
family CALLYSPONGIDAE (de Laubenfels) 
GENUS Callyspongia (Duchassaing & 
Michelotti) 
Callyspongia ramosa (Gray) 
Synonymy: See Burton, 1934, p. 603. 
OCCURRENCE: Noises Islands; Kawau Island; 
Narrow Neck. 
REMARKS: An erect branching sponge, purple 
in life. Commonly washed up on Auckland 
beaches. 
DISTRIBUTION: New Zealand; Australia; Ant- 
arctica. 
order POECILOSCLERINA (Topsent) 
group PHORBASIFORMES (de Laubenfels) 
family PHORBASIDAE (de Laubenfels) 
GENUS Phorbas (Duchassaing & Michelotti) 
Phorbas intermedia, sp. nov. 
Fig. 5a, b 
OCCURRENCE: Rangitoto; Karaka Bay (St. 
Helier’s ) . 
Fig. 5. a, Phorbas intermedia, sp. nov. b, Phorbas 
intermedia, acanthotornota, acanthostyles, isochelae, 
sigmata, raphides (X 350). 
DESCRIPTION: An irregularly massive sponge 
with an uneven to minutely papillate surface. 
Oscula are not apparent. The texture is firm. 
Colour in life is a rich yellow, in spirit a pale 
yellow. The skeleton, a confused system of as- 
cending fibres branching and anastomosing, is 
composed of bundles of acanthostyli of two sizes 
and tornota. There is a dermal palisade of 
brushes of tornota. 
Spicules . Megascleres: (a) acanthostyles .17 
to .22 mm. X .005 to .007 mm.; (b) acantho- 
styles .09 X .004 mm.; (c) tornota with sub- 
tylote microspined ends — .15 X .004 to .006 mm. 
There are numerous intermediates between acan- 
thostyli and tornota. Microscleres : (a) arcuate 
isochelae .04 X .045 mm. chord; (b) sigmata 
.017 X .021 mm. chord; (c) raphides .04 X 07 
mm. long. 
