Sponges of Palau, I — BERGQUIST 
165 
the thickness of the sponge. Short tracts of spon- 
gin have developed inside the embryonic tissue 
(Fig. 21a). 
DISCUSSION: This species is very closely com- 
parable with Microciona maunaloa de Lauben- 
fels from Hawaii, the two, insofar as can be 
determined, being the only species of Micro- 
ciona having extremely small isochelae as a 
third microsclere category. 
Sufficient small differences exist between the 
two species to allow the Palau specimen to re- 
main as a separate species. 
The size and shape of the acanthostyles, the 
shape of the larger subtylostyles, and slight size 
differences in the microscleres are the only di- 
vergent characters in the spiculation of the two 
species. The Palau specimen, however, does not 
show the color change to blue on fixation that 
de Laubenfels reports for M. maunaloa, and its 
color in life is pale brown. 
De Laubenfels (1954) described M. eurypa 
as a Dictyociona , presumably placing emphasis 
upon the slight spination of many of the styles. 
Topsent (1913) differentiated Dictyociona from 
Microciona by the presence in the former of a 
spicule fibre network rather than a series of 
independent plumose columns. Microciona eu- 
rypa possesses neither spined main megascleres 
nor a network of spicule fibres. 
DISTRIBUTION: Palau Islands (de Lauben- 
fels ) . 
GENUS Clathria Schmidt 
Clathria cervicornis (Thiele) 
Fig. 1 Aiv 
25 fj 
10 JJ 
Fig. 21 h. Microciona eurypa (de Laubenfels). Spicules: 1, Large styles. 2, Auxiliary subtylostyles. 3, Acan- 
thostyles. 4, Ends of auxiliary subtylostyles. 5, Toxa. 6, Isocheiae. 
