CALCAREOUS SPONGES—BENDY. 
11 
(3) Large oxea (fig. 86); usually more or less club-shaped; stout, usually strongly 
curved, the bend being nearer to the distal end. Proximal portion usually 
nearly straight, gradually and sharply pointed. Distal portion irregular, 
usually crooked, ranging from gradually sharp-pointed to broadly rounded 
off at the end. Size about 0-43 by 0-034 mm. 
(4) Microxea (figs. 8c, 8 d); flattened, slightly curved, chiefly in the plane of 
flattening, divided into proximal and distal portions by a sharp annular ridge, 
about one quarter of the length from the distal end; both ends fairly gradually 
and sharply pointed; size about 0-082 by 0-006 mm. (at the ridge-like 
thickening). These spicules show very distinctly the differences in appearance, 
according to whether they are viewed lying flat or edgewise, which led Minchin 
to believe in the existence of two kinds of oxea in the genus Leucosolenia*. 
In the former case (fig. 8c) they appear very pale, with weak outlines, in the 
latter (fig. 8 d) darker, much more refringent, and narrower. 
(5) Trichoxea; about 0*39 mm. long and of hair-like thinness. 
The unusually strong tendency of the triradiates to assume a sagittal character 
prevents us from regarding this species as a perfectly typical Leucetta, but the nuclei 
of the collared cells are distinctly basal and there are no vestiges of an articulate tubar 
skeleton. The large oxea recall those of Leucascus davatus Dendy [1892], both as 
regards form and arrangement, and the entire organisation suggests the close relationship 
of Leucascus and Leucetta assumed by Dendy and Row [1913]. There appears to be 
no species of Leucetta hitherto described with both large oxea and microxea, though 
they occur together in an unpublished species of Row’s (L. expansa ). 
Register Nos., Locality, &c. —I, 1-9, Macquarie Is. Picked up on beaches after 
storm, West Coast; Y, 1, 2, beach, Macquarie Island. 
Grantia cirrata JenJcin var. aurorae nov. 
(Plate I, figs. 4, 9«-9a\) 
Leucandra cirrata Jenkin [1908]. 
There are several specimens or fragments of specimens of this variety in the 
collection, a complete individual being represented in fig. 4. The sponge is elongately 
cylindrical, or more or less compressed (? artificially); slender; of pretty uniform 
diameter for the greater part of its length but narrowing gradually above to the naked, 
terminal vent, and below to the point of attachment. The specimens are more or less 
curved in their present condition. The largest (R.N. IV, 2) measures about 18 mm. in 
length by 3 mm. in maximum diameter. The surface, when viewed under a pocket 
lens, appears, to use Jenkin’s expression, as if covered with short, curling hair, owing to 
the large projecting oxea, but this character is hardly visible to the naked eye. The 
colour in spirit should evidently be nearly white, but is actually deeply tinged with green 
by copper dissolved in the spirit. 
* See under Leucosolenia botryoides var. macquariensis. 
20218—C Vol. VI, Part 1 
