Spongelia stellidermata, Gunther & Dallas & Carruthers & Francis, 1885

Gunther, Albert C. L. G., Dallas, William S., Carruthers, William & Francis, William, 1885, The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Including Zoology, Botany, and Geology, Reptiles and Batrachians from Brazil, LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.; KENT AND CO.,; WHITT AKER AND CO.: BAILLIERE, PARIS: MACLACHLAN AND STEWART, EDINBURGH: HODGES, FOSTER, AND CO., DUBLIN: AND ASHER, BERLIN: TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, pp. 1-96 : 219-221

Spongelia stellidermata , n. sp.

Specimen erect, thick, spatulate, compressed, stipitate, thinning from the centre towards the upper margin and sides, which are irregularly serrated, thickening towards the stein, which is round and truncated (? cut off by the dredge). Consistence soft, resilient, in its wet state. Colour, when fresh, ‘£ reddish buff,’ ’ now grey outside, reddish buff within. Surface covered with a densely poriferous cuticle, beneath which is a thick layer of intercrossing and interuniting curvilinear, soft, fleshy fibre without foreign bodies, which contains the subdermal cavities, and which, on the outside, presents a stelliform pattern, wherein the centres of the stelhe correspond to the ends of the fibre internally, which, however, do not come through the dermis. Pores numerous throughout the cuticle. Vents on the processes respectively which form the serration on the sides and upper margin, internal structure fibroreticular, consisting of thick arenaceous vertical fibre, enve ­ loped in an indistinct layer of keratine, interimited by much lateral fibre, chiefly formed of keratine; the whole con ­ stituting a massive reticulation whose interstices are filled with pulpy parenchymatous sarcode of a bright orange-yellow colour, very much like that in Holopsamma laevis &e. Size of specimen 4 in. high by 2x1 in. horizontally in its greatest dimensions.

Hab. Marine.

Loc. Port Phillip Heads, South Australia. Depth 3 fath.

Obs. When dried the surface becomes contracted, corru ­ gated, and of a dark brown colour from the thickness of the dermal layer, in the midst of which whitish points may be seen indicating the position of the ends of the arenaceous fibre beneath. The entire form and arrangement of the vents recalls to mind the skeletal specimens of Psammonemata in the British Museum Ac., for which, from their fine and delicate structure, I have proposed the name “ Callhistia.” The species, described and photographed by Hyatt under the name of “ Spongelia incerta ” (1. c. p. 533, pl. xvi. fig. 32), which came from the same neighbourhood, viz. “ Phillip Is.,” is very much like the one I have noticed; and many of his other photographs under the same generic appellation, viz. fig. 13, pl. xv., and figs. 12, 13, 15, and 15 a, pl. xvii., from the same locality also, are very like the fine skeletal specimens in the British Museum, all of which are said to have come from Australia.

Although the chief distinguishing character for Spongelia which 1 have adopted places it below the remaining groups of Psammonemata in my original classification, it at the same time places it above all those in the family Arenida just men tioned, so that, belonging to neither, its position is thus indicated, while, to increase the facility of finding ir, a family name is required, which for the present, or provisionally, might be “ Spongelida,” with “ Spongelina ” for the group, and “ Spongelia ” for the single genus, “ with power to add to it,” as they say. Thus:—

The next group in my original classification above the Sarcocornea , now embodied in the Arenida (see pp. 215 and 218), is no. 14, the “ Otahitica,” so named from Ellis ’s representations of three “ Otaheite ” sponges in 1786 (Nat. Hist. Zoophytes, Ellis and Solander, tab. lix. figs. 1-3), afterwards called by Esper " Spongia otahitica ," which term I adopted for a vast number of species and varieties of this kind unnamed and undescribed, but well sketched structurally and morphologically in my original diagnosis of the group. They are all strongly characterized by their papyraceous form, seldom exceeding g in. in thickness, and sometimes as thin as writing-paper itself; hence Hyatt ’s term “ PHYLLOSPONGIADAE ” (Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 1877, p. 540) for the “ family ” is very appropriate and acceptable, for, from what I have just stated, the group will in all probability hereafter have to be subdivided, and then a family name must be supplied, so at once I would propose “ Phyllospongida,” Hyatt, merely altering the patronymic affix to suit my termi ­ nology.

Of this family- there is only one specimen in Mr. Wilson ’s collection to show that it is represented on the south coast of Australia; but this is otherwise abundantly confirmed by several specimens from thence having passed through my hands, as well as by the three species described by Hyatt (op. et loc. cit. p. 543) under the generic name of “ Carteriospongia .” As, however, my object at present is, as before stated, chiefly to record, through Air. Wilson ’s specimens, what is to be found on this coast for future identification, this specimen, which also appears to me to represent a new species, may be named and described as follows:—

Figures

Spongelia