142 
FIG. lb. Dysidea herbacea (Keller). Sta. 60. 
benfels belong to the genus Dysidea. Many fea- 
tures of the type description (de Laubenfels, 
1954:18) however, are inconsistent with this 
generic identification. This can possibly be ex- 
plained if one assumes that among his speci- 
mens, which are here correctly assigned to 
Dysidea herbacea , de Laubenfels collected a 
fragment at least of Phyllospongia dendyi and 
subsequently sectioned and described this and 
not the Dysidea. The growth form of these two 
sponges is similar, and they occur in the same 
locality. 
Burton (1934) lists several synonyms of D. 
herbacea, not all of which belong to this species. 
The holotype of Spongelia delicatula Row has 
been examined and is certainly D. herbacea; 
similarly with Row’s specimen assigned to 
Phyllospongia cordifolia. Spongelia digitata Sol- 
las bears some resemblance to D. herbacea but 
cannot certainly be referred here. De Lauben- 
fels’ Pacific specimens labelled D. herbacea be- 
long to a new species, Dysidea granulosa. 
DISTRIBUTION: Red Sea (Keller, Row, Top- 
sent); Indian Ocean (Dendy); Australia (Hent- 
schel, Burton); Marshall Islands (de Laubenfels). 
Dysidea chlorea de Laubenfels 
Fig. 8 a, b 
Dysidea chlorea de Laubenfels, 1954, p. 37, 
fig. 19. 
Dysidea chlorea de Laubenfels, 1955, p. 138. 
OCCURRENCE: Sta. 47, 92, 219- 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol XIX, April 1965 
Fig. 1 c. Dysidea herbacea ( Keller ). Cross section 
of lamella to show the disposition of fibres and surface 
detritus. 
DESCRIPTION: In habit the three specimens 
above agree relatively closely with the type de- 
scription. They are digitate sponges with pro- 
jections 2. 0-4.0 mm wide rising to a height of 
2.5 cm from an apparently encrusting base 1.5 
mm thick. In the sponge from Sta. 47 it is dif- 
ficult to decide what the growth form was, as 
the specimen has been crushed. It could have 
been sprawling or even erect, since the projec- 
tions are developed on both sides of the body, 
and the body is 3.0 mm thick at one end. The 
holotype (USNM 22971) consists of two frag- 
ments of a sponge that may have been similar 
to the specimen from Sta. 219 but which had 
the vertical projections slightly more crowded. 
COLOR: In alcohol, yellowish brown (Sta. 
219) (Y-R-Y 7/4) to dark brick red (yR 4/4) 
(Sta. 47). 
TEXTURE: Soft and easily compressible. 
SURFACE: Conulose with conules 0. 3-1.0 mm 
high distributed at intervals of 1.2-3. 5 mm. No 
oscules or pores are visible. 
SKELETON: A loose reticulation of exceed- 
ingly fine fibres, cored with sand grains and 
showing little division into ascending and con- 
necting fibres except where a fibre enters a 
conule. Often the fibre projects up to 400g 
beyond the sponge surface and macrostopically 
the conules appear to have fine white apical 
hairs. 
