The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma / edited by A.E. Shipley. Freshwater sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa / by N. Annandale.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma / edited by A.E. Shipley. Freshwater sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa / by N. Annandale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    201/288 (page 189)
    Order CTENOSTOMATA. [Division VESICULARINA. Family VESICULARIDJE. Vesicularida, Hincks, Brit. Marine Polyzoa, p. 512 (1880). Zocecia constricted at the base, deciduous, attached to a stem that is either recumbent or vertical. Genus BOWERBANKIA, Farre. Bowerbankia, Farre, Phil. Trans. Boy. Soc. cxxvii, p. 391 (1837). Bowerbankia, Hincks, op. cit. p. 518. Zoarium vertical or recumbent. Zooscia ovate or almost cylin- drical, arranged on the stem singly, in clusters or in a subspiral line. Polypide with 8 or 10 tentacles. Bowerbankia candata, Hincl-s. Boioerbankia caudata, Hincks, op. cit. p. 521, pi. lxxv, figs. 7, 8. This species is easily distinguished from all others by the fact that mature zocecia have always the appearance of being fixed to the sides of a creeping, adherent stem and are produced, below the point at which they are thus fixed, into a poiuted tail.” Subsp. bengalensis, Annandale. Bowerbankia caudata, Thomely, Bee. Ind. Mus. i, p. 196 (1907). Bowerbankia caudata, Annandale, ibid. p. 203. Bowerbankia caudata race benyalensis, id., ibid. ii. p. 13 (1908). The Indian race is only distinguished from the typical form by its greater luxuriance of growth and by the fact that the “ tail ” of the zooecia is often of relatively great length, sometimes equal- ing or exceeding the rest of the zocecium. The stem, which is divided at irregular intervals by partitions, often crosses and recrosses its own course and even anastomoses, and a fur-like structure is formed in which the zocecia representing the hairs become much elongated; but upright branches are never formed. The zoarium has a greenish or greyish tinge. Type in the Indian Museum. Geographical Distribution.—B. caudata subsp. bengalensis is common in brackish water in the Ganges delta, where it often occurs in close association with Victore.lla bengalensis, and also at the south end of the Chilka Lake in the north-east of the Madras Presidency. Although it has not yet been found else- where, it probably occurs all round the Indian coasts.]