The most striking feature of this list is the evidence it affords as to
the distinct character of the fauna of the Malabar Zone, a feature that
is also remarkably clear as regards the Potamonidæ, one genus of which
(_Gecarcinucus_) is peculiar, so far as India is concerned, to that
zone. As regards the sponges we may note the occurrence of no less than
three species of the subgenus _Stratospongilla_, which has not been
found elsewhere in India except on one occasion in Mysore, and of a
species of the genus _Corvospongilla_, which is unknown from the rest of
Peninsular India and from the Himalayas. The genus _Pectispongilla_ is
only known from the Malabar Zone. Among the polyzoa the genus
_Fredericella_[D] appears to be confined, so far as the Indian and
Burmese fauna is concerned, to the Malabar Zone, and the same is true as
regards the group of species to which _Plumatella tanganyikæ_, an
African form, belongs.
[Footnote D: Mr. S. W. Kemp recently obtained at Mangaldai,
near the Bhutan frontier of Assam, a single specimen of what
may be a species of _Fredericella_.]
A further examination of the list of Malabar species and a consideration
of allied forms shows that the majority of the forms restricted to the
Malabar Zone are either African or else closely allied to African forms.
The genus _Corvospongilla_, except for one Burmese species, is otherwise
peculiar to Tropical Africa; while _Stratospongilla_, although not
confined to Africa, is more prolific in species in that continent than
in any other. _Spongilla (Stratospongilla) bombayensis_ has only been
found in Bombay, the Western Ghats, Mysore, and Natal, and _Plumatella
tanganyikæ_ only in the Western Ghats and Central Africa. The genus
_Fredericella_ (which also occurs in Europe, N. America, and Australia)
is apparently of wide distribution in Africa, while _Lophopodella_
(which in India is not confined to the Malabar Zone) is, except for a
Japanese race of the Indian species, restricted outside India, so far as
we know, to East Africa.
A less definite relationship between the sponges and polyzoa of the
Malabar Zone and those of countries to the east of India is suggested by
the following facts:--
(1) The occurrence of the genus _Corvospongilla_ in Burma;
(2) the occurrence of the subgenus _Stratospongilla_ in
Sumatra, China, and the Philippines;
(3) the occurrence of a race of _Lophopodella carteri_ in
Japan;
(4) the occurrence of a species allied to _Plumatella
tanganyikæ_ in the Philippines.
It will be noted that in each of these instances the relationship
extends to Africa as well as to the Eastern countries, and is more
marked in the former direction. The species of _Stratospongilla_,
moreover, that occurs in Sumatra (_S. sumatrensis_) also occurs in
Africa, while those that have been found in China and the Philippines
are aberrant forms.
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