Sponges' of Palau, I- — BERGQUIST 
147 
possession of a eurypylous chamber system and 
a pronouncedly conulose surface this sponge 
could be referred to Leiosella. 
There are no other species of Euryspongia 
known from this area. Euryspongia phlogera de 
Laubenfels (USMM 22952) is not a dysideid. 
ORDER HAPLOSCLERIDA Topsent 
family HALICLONIDAE de Laubenfels 
GENUS HALICLONA Grant 
Haliclona velinea ( de Laubenfels ) 
Fig. 12 
Acervochalina velinea de Laubenfels, 1954, p. 
52, fig. 30. 
? Acervochalina fnimita Ridley, 1884, p, 
399. 
non Chalina fnimita Schmidt, 1870, p. 33. 
OCCURRENCE: Sta. 25. 
DESCRIPTION: Only one small specimen of 
this sponge was collected; it was growing upon 
a branch of coral but became detached during 
collection. The habit is thickly -encrusting; the 
sponge, which appears to be entire, is 1.7 cm 
long, 0.6- 1.5 cm wide, 0.8 cm high. 
COLOR: In alcohol, sandy except for a thin 
greyish-black surface layer. 
TEXTURE: Relatively soft, easily compressible. 
SURFACE: Irregular owing to incorporated 
calcareous debris. Where the darkly pigmented 
dermal membrane is entire, the macroscopic 
appearance is smooth, even slightly slimy. 
Under low magnification small surface conules 
are apparent. No pores or oscules are visible. 
SKELETON: A reticulation of very fine spori 
gin fibres which have no regular arrangement. 
Thicker ascending fibres are usually simple, but 
often two will unite and later diverge. Most 
connecting fibres arise at right angles to the 
ascending fibres but there are many exceptions, 
particularly in the deeper regions of the sponge 
where the fasciculation of primary fibres and 
branching of secondaries is common. Primary 
fibres are 16-24/* in diameter and contain two, 
occasionally three, rows of oxeas; secondary fi- 
bres are 5 .0-8. 5/* in diameter and never contain 
more than one spicule row. Spicules are also 
abundant interstitially. 
SPICULES: Extremely fine, slightly curved 
Fig. 12. Haliclona velinea (de Laubenfels). Pho- 
tomicrograph showing the network of fine fibres, the 
conulose surface, and the darker dermal layer. 
oxeas are the only spicules present. 
DIMENSIONS: 88-102 x 1.2-2. 5ft. 
ECTOSOME: No ectosome is differentiated 
save the pigmented dermal membrane, 12 - 1 5 ft 
thick. 
ENDOSOME: Fleshy and contains abundant 
spherical flagellate chambers 25-30 ft in di- 
ameter. 
DISCUSSION: De Laubenfels (1954) states 
that spicules were sparse in this species; this 
is not the case in either the present specimen 
or the holotype (usnm 22854). Burton (1934: 
529) puts forward a convincing argument for 
synonymizing Acervochalina Ridley with Hali- 
clona Grant, and in doing so reverses his earlier 
(1927) decision to retain Acervochalina as a 
genus of the pachychalinid group lacking a 
dermal skeleton. When Ridley set up Avervo- 
chalina he named Chalina limb at a Montagu 
(per Bowerbank ) as the type. His generic diag- 
nosis contains no reference to the presence of 
