Habitat.—Taken at the edge of the Kanghyi ("great pond") at Mudon near Moulmein in the Amherst district of Tenasserim. The specimens were obtained in March in a dry state and had grown on logs and branches which had evidently been submerged earlier in the year. The name vesparium given to the allied species on account of its resemblance to a wasps' nest applies with almost equal force to this Burmese form.
Genus 7. CORVOSPONGILLA, nov.
Type[[AJ]], Spongilla loricata, Weltner.
Spongillidæ in which the gemmule-spicules are without a trace of rotulæ and the flesh-spicules have slender cylindrical shafts that bear at or near either end a circle of strong recurved spines. The gemmule-spicules are usually stout and sausage-shaped, and the gemmules resemble those of Stratospongilla in structure. The skeleton is strong and the skeleton-spicules stout, both resembling those of the "genus" Potamolepis, Marshall.
As in all other genera of Spongillidæ the structure of the skeleton is somewhat variable, the spicule-fibres of which it is composed being much more distinct in some species than in others. The skeleton-spicules are often very numerous and in some cases the skeleton is so compact and rigid that the sponge may be described as stony. The flesh-spicules closely resemble the gemmule-spicules of some species of Ephydatia and Heteromeyenia.
Geographical Distribution.—The species of this genus are probably confined to Africa (whence at least four are known) and the Oriental Region. One has been recorded from Burma and another from the Bombay Presidency.
Key to the Indian Species of Corvospongilla.
| I. | Gemmule with two layers of gemmule-spicules; those of the inner layer not markedly smaller than those of the outer. | burmanica, p. [123]. |
| II. | Gemmule with two layers of gemmule-spicules, the outer of which contains spicules of much greater size than the inner. | lapidosa, p. [124]. |
22. Corvospongilla burmanica* (Kirkpatrick). ([Plate II], fig. 5.)
Spongilla loricata var. burmanica, Kirkpatrick, Rec. Ind. Mus. ii, p. 97, pl. ix (1908).