Porifera of Friday Harbor and Vicinity 
M. W. de Laubenfels 1 
The Porifera of the northwest coast of North 
America were described rather thoroughly in 
three papers by L. M. Lambe (1892, 1893, 1894). 
Many sponges which he treated were from Van- 
couver Island, near the location herein discussed. 
Otherwise the Puget Sound Porifera have been 
little studied. 
The present paper is based on a study made 
by the author during the summer of 1931. In- 
tertidal species were studied living, in the field. 
Dredged specimens were examined practically 
immediately upon removal from the water. T. 
G. Thomson, director of the Oceanographic Lab- 
oratories at that time, and other members of the 
staff, rendered valuable cooperation for which 
gratitude is hereby expressed. 
While other invertebrates were found in con- 
siderable variety, amazingly few species of 
sponges were found to occur in the San Juan 
Archipelago. The number of individual speci- 
mens was large, so that one may conclude that 
conditions were suitable for the survival and 
growth of sponges. Notwithstanding careful 
search of the shores and almost daily dredging 
for several weeks, the collection consists of rep- 
resentatives of 16 genera, 17 species in all, 2 of 
which, Stylissa stipitata and Syringella amphi- 
spicula , are new to science. Two species of the 
class Calcispongiae were found. No dredging 
was done deep enough to bring up sponges of 
the class Hyalospongiae. The 15 species of the 
class Demospongiae represent 14 genera. 
CALCISPONGIAE 
Leucosolenia nautilia de Laubenfels, 1930 
The sponge thus identified was collected July 
4, 1931, near the town of Lopez in Lopez Island. 
It was dredged from a depth of about 60 m. 
It consists of a mass of tubes, each somewhat 
less than 1 mm. in diameter, occasionally an- 
astomosing, but much more frequently branch- 
1 A posthumous paper, edited by Frank J. Little, Jr., 
Department of Zoology, University of Texas, Austin, 
Texas. Manuscript received February 11, I960. 
ing. The mass of tubes arises from a basal rhi- 
zome or reticulation of tubes affixed to the sub- 
stratum. The maximum distance from this which 
is reached by the ascending or descending tubes 
is barely 1 cm. The color in life was white; the 
consistency softly fragile. The occasional oscules 
are located at the distal extremities of the ascon 
tubes and are less than 1 mm. in diameter. The 
surface is optically smooth, and microscopically 
somewhat roughened by spicules which pro- 
trude, but not at right angles, they lie tangen- 
tially in the ectosome, their points directed to- 
ward the oscule. Around the oscule in each is 
found a coronal fringe of special oxeas about 6 
X 300/a. The obliquely placed dermal oxeas are 
somewhat larger, say about 8 X 420/a. The prin- 
cipal spicules in among the flagellate cells of 
the ascon layer are triaxons with rays about 
8 X 140/a. There are a few hypogastral quadri- 
radiates, of approximately the same size as the 
triradiates. 
This is the second record of this species, the 
first being by de Laubenfels (1930: 25) from 
Monterey Bay, California. The Puget Sound 
specimen has somewhat smaller oxeas echinant- 
ing the surface than do the California speci- 
mens, but otherwise it agrees very closely. The 
other species of Leucosolenia which is probably 
most closely to be compared here, and which 
therefore indicates the zoogeographical relation- 
ships of the form under discussion, is Leucoso- 
lenia echinata Kirk (1894: 177) from New 
Zealand. All its spicules are noticeably larger 
than those of nautilia and it is remarkable that 
in it the quadriradiates considerably exceed the 
triradiates in abundance. Furthermore, it is not 
recorded by Kirk that there were special coronal 
oxeas, although this may have been the case and 
they were overlooked by the author. 
Scypha raphanus (Schmidt, 1862) de Lauben- 
fels, 193 6a 
The species thus tentatively identified was 
found growing on the pilings at Friday Harbor. 
192 
