28 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL IV, January, 1950 
the surface than any other orientation, but 
many are strewn in confusion. 
The spicules are exclusively styles, chiefly 
5 by 300 to 7 by 400 /x in size. A few that 
are much smaller may be immature. 
One hesitates to erect a new species in. a 
genus that, like this one, has fifty names in 
it already, especially since these are all so 
much alike In description. On the other hand, 
this genus has only a few of those traits to 
which we look for specific separation; were 
we to consider others, such as chemical com- 
position, serological reaction, and physiologi- 
cal processes, we might find that there really 
are more diverse species within it than are 
now suspected. The emphasis is here laid on 
the green color. Bowerbank (1874: 191 ) 
established the name Hymeniacidon plumiger 
for two British specimens that he said were 
green in preservative; what they were in life 
is unknown. He may have overlooked micro- 
scleres; therefore we are not sure that these 
specimens were even of the genus Hymeni- 
acidon. Their styles were only 4 by 234 ft. 
Since Bowerbank’s report, no one seems to 
have found any further specimens to match 
his description; therefore plumiger is not an 
important species name, and, except for this 
dubious record, the color is unique in the 
group. Except for the color, chloris is much 
like Hymeniacidon -keliophila, which is abun- 
dan on the Atlantic coast of North America. 
It must be realized that green color may be 
due to contained algal symbionta; even so, 
that a species should specialize in symbiosis 
may be a valid criterion. 
It appears that there are the following 
valid species of Hymeniacidon in the world: 
a yellow one, caruncula , in the Mediterranean 
and north to England; a deep red one, san- 
guined, from England on north ( some experts 
would synonymize these, but I found them 
both at Plymouth, England, and definitely 
decided they were not conspecific ) ; an orange 
species, heliophila, from the Arctic to the 
West Indies in the West Atlantic; a yellow 
species, sinapeum-, which is practically undis- 
tinguishable from caruncula, on the west coast 
of North America; in the same locality also 
occurs ungodon with a peculiar mahogany 
colored ectosome. In the West Indies amp hi ■ 
lecta has a curious brown color and corky con- 
sistency. Five species names occur in the 
Indian Ocean and East Indies; all have ex- 
tremely thick spicules (20 to 40 /,*. ) and may- 
all be conspecific. A yellow species, fernan- 
dezi, from both coasts of South America, is 
also close to caruncula , but paucispiculus from 
Argentina is not certainly of this genus; it is 
a fan with few spicules and those are of two 
size ranges. Three species names have been 
used in this group for New Zealand forms; 
all three are much alike and may be conspe- 
cific; minute differences separate them from 
caruncula. Four Antarctic species each have 
some distinctive peculiarity, such as centro- 
style spicules, or verrucose surface. Many 
other named species are unrecognizable or 
are already known to fall in synonymy. As- 
suming chloris to be a good species, I opine 
that there are 14 valid species in the genus. 
The species name chloris refers to the green 
color of this sponge. 
Terpios zeteki (de Laubenfels) 
Fig. 18 
This species is one of the two or three most 
abundant sponges in Hawaii. My first speci- 
men from this region was collected Septem- 
ber 10, 1947, at Moku O Loe at a depth of 
1 meter, near the pier (location number 6, 
Fig. 2). This one is deposited in the U. S. 
National Museum, Register Number 22739- 
This species is sub-ramose. There is a basal 
mass from which rounded projections arise, 
often scarcely more than hemispherical, at 
other places digitate. These projections are 
usually between 1 and 2 cm. in diameter, 
from 0 to 5 cm. long. Some masses reach 
head size. The interior of zeteki is consist- 
ently an ochre-yellow, but the exterior is con- 
