Sponges of Kaneohe Bay — DE LAUBENFELS 
lack of mineral or fibrous skeleton but the 
presence of a tough spongin dermis. 
Dendy (1905: 6l ) established Hexadella 
Mica from India. This was red when alive, 
lamellate and folded, with peculiar surface 
openings called "chones.” Burton (1926: 2) 
described Hexadella kirkpatricki from South 
Africa. This was gray, with papillate oscules, 
and erect habitus. Burton (1937: 43) de- 
scribed Hexadella purpurea from India. This 
was purple in life, not at all folded like 
Mica, and the endosome contained much 
foreign detritus. 
Hexadella pleochromata is sharply set off 
from the other species in the genus by its 
change of color from yellow to purple upon 
dying. On the other hand, exactly such a 
change is exhibited by one species of Apiy- 
silla, one or two species of lanthella, one un- 
described species of T horectopsamma, one 
undescribed species of Hippiospongia, and 
several species in Verongia. Thus it is a trait 
that is widespread in the families of the order 
Keratosa. It is clearly based on the occur- 
rence of a pigment that has the properties 
of an indicator. It may be regarded as prac- 
tically certain that in a sufficiently acid me- 
dium this pigment is yellow, whereas in a 
sufficiently alkaline medium it is dark purple. 
The chemistry involved is being worked out 
at Yale University for the related pigments 
in Aplysilla and lanthella. 
Xytqpsiph ijm new genus 
This genus is erected in the family Des- 
macidonidae with the following species, 
Xytopsiphum kaneohe, as genotype. It should 
be emphasized that this is a genus with stron 
gyles as megascleres and arcuate chelas for 
microscleres. In the type, the latter are pecu- 
liar, with greatly reduced clads. 
The genus Xytopsihis de Laubenfels 
(1936: 54) has a description essentially like 
this one, and there are some sound reasons 
for arguing that the species kaneohe should 
be put in it. On the other hand, the type of 
11 
Xytopsihis was emphasized as being the 
sponge which Bowerbank (1875: 287) de- 
scribed as Halichondria aspera, from a speci- 
men from the Malayan region. This might 
be considered fairly close to the Hawaiian 
faunal region, too. Were Bowerbank’s de- 
scription accurate, the matter would be sim- 
ple. On May 26, 1948, however, Dr. Maurice 
Burton of the British Museum (Natural His- 
tory) wrote me a personal letter stating that 
the type specimen of aspera was in his mu- 
seum, a dried specimen, and that it is not at 
all as Bowerbank described it; instead it is 
a Tedania. 
One might argue that because aspera does 
not fit the diagnosis of Xytopsihis it cannot 
go into that genus, is not and cannot be the 
type thereof, hence, that the following new 
species which does fit the diagnosis must 
become the type of Xytopsihis. Against this 
I will set the following considerations. The 
original generic designation said " Xytopsihis 
is established for genotypfe Halichondria 
aspera Bowerbank”; furthermore, the descrip- 
tion mentioned chelas of two sizes, so that 
the Hawaiian sponge does not fit perfectly. 
It is here considered that Xytopsihis falls, 
with aspera, into synonymy to Tedania. 
Xytopsiphum is not secure in its allocation 
to the Desmacidonidae. This family contains 
many genera that may be discovered, if ade- 
quate data about surface structure become 
available, to resemble more the Adociidae, 
or perhaps a new family between the older 
two. Xytopsiphum may go into this still 
hypothetical new family. Its closest relatives 
are now in the Desmacidonidae; these are 
Ph/mocolumella (megascleres oxeas, micro- 
scleres perhaps really like those of kaneohe, 
but the surface structure hispid) and closer 
still, Xytopsaga, whose megascleres are has- 
tate tornotes, and whose microscleres are ar- 
cuate chelas. They are rather commonplace 
chelas whereas those of kaneohe are peculiar, 
with minute clads, as in Ph/mocolumella 
On the island .of Hawaii there occurs an un- 
