Hawaiian Sponges — DE LAUBENFELS 
237 
ular tracts or fibers, with little spongin, only 
two to four spicules per cross section. The 
spicules are chiefly oxeas 2.5 to 3 by 160 
microns. There are also numerous thinner 
spicules, 0.5 X 120 microns; these may be 
termed raphides, but on the other hand, may 
merely be juvenile forms of the larger spicules. 
Fig. 1 . Camera lucida drawing (X 635) of a typical 
spicule of the sponge identified as Haliclona flabello- 
di git at a. 
Burton (1934: 534) described Haliclona 
flahellodigitatus from northeastern Australia. 
His specimens, and that now under discussion, 
are notable within the large genus Haliclona 
for the relative thinness or slenderness of 
their oxeas. All Haliclonas are much like one 
another, and the question of "what is a 
species?” is even more perplexing in regard to 
this genus than for other genera. Spongolo- 
gists are confident that many species of 
Haliclona exist, but for lack of striking char- 
acteristics have paid attention to small differ- 
ences. It is far from certain that this Hawaiian 
sponge is conspecific with that described by 
Burton, but there is significant resemblance. 
It seems regrettable to add more and more 
new names in so crowded a genus, and there- 
fore this tentative identification is made. 
Xytopsues zukerani new species 
This new name is based upon a single 
specimen, to be deposited in the U. S. Na- 
tional Museum, collected 14 February 1948 
by dredging south of Diamond Head (Hono- 
lulu), at a depth of 75 meters. It was a small 
amorphous sponge, less than 1 cm. thick, 
less than 5 cm. in diameter. The color in life 
was orange, and the consistency of the soft 
sponge was obscured by its content of debris. 
There was no conspicuous dermal specializa- 
tion, and the pores and oscules were closed, 
a 
Fig. 2. Camera lucida drawing (X 635) of spicules 
of Zytopsues zukerani: a , Strongyle; b, sigmas; c, typical 
chela (arcuate) front and side views; d, a typical chela 
(unguiferate) . 
not evident. The sponge tissues held the mass 
together, but were otherwise confined to the 
interstices of a large quantity of calcareous 
sand. Some obviously foreign spicules were 
present, and in such cases as this it is always 
difficult (or impossible) to be sure which 
spicules are proper. The abundant, widely 
distributed ones are, however, probably 
proper. These include straight smooth stron- 
gyles 1.5 by 190 to 3 by 220 microns, contort 
sigmas 22 to 26 microns in chord length, and 
isochelas 12 microns long. The latter gener- 
ally lie on one side in spicule preparations, as 
do palmate chelas that have narrow shovels. 
One isochela was found to be unguiferate, as 
illustrated in Figure 3 d, but more seem to be 
arcuate, verging upon palmate, as shown in 
Figure 3 c. 
a 
Fig. 3. Camera lucida drawing (X 635) of spicules 
of the sponge identified as Lissodendoryx calypta : a. Tor- 
note; b, acanthostyle; c, echinating acanthostyle; d, 
arcuate isochela, side and front views. 
The type of the genus Xytopsues was de- 
scribed as Phoriospongia osburnensis by George 
and Wilson (1919: 154) and transferred to 
Xytopsues by de Laubenfels (1936: 55). It was 
found at Beaufort, North Carolina. This west- 
ern North Atlantic sponge is much like X. 
