Architeuthu.\ CEPHALOPODA. 1053 



The beak and portions of the skeleton had been extracted by 

 some Italian fishermen, and althoiigh an effort was made to trace 

 and procure them it failed. (T. W. Kirk.) 



Fam. OMMASTREPHID^S, 



' > i in n a tostrephidce. 



Body long, cylindrical ; arms short, armed with suckers only ; 

 the short tentacular arms non-retractile ; siphon valved, united by 

 bands to the head ; fins usually sagittate, broader than long ; siphonal 

 cartilage with longitudinal groove, crossed by a posterior shorter 

 transverse groove. 



Genus 1. OMMASTREPHES, d'Orbigny, 1835. 



Oinuiastrephe-s, d'Orb., Moll. Viv. et Foss., i, 1835, 412. Type : Loligo 

 sagittata, var. a, Lamarck. Ommatostrephes. Loven, 184G. Todurodes, 

 Steenstrup, 1880. 



Body long, cylindrical ; arms short, with 2 rows of suckers ; ten- 

 tacles short, not retractile, the clubs with 4 rows of suckers ; siphon 

 valved, fastened to the head by bands. Shell, small, lancet-form, 

 with a hollow end-conus. 



Distribution. About five species from all seas. The species are 

 mostly gregarious. 



Fossil in the Liassic and Tertiary. 



Vernacular Names. Sea-arrows ; flying squids. 



1. Ommastrephes Sloanii, Gray, 1849. Plate 66, fig. 2. 



Ommastrephes Sloanii, Gray, Cat. Moll. Brit. Mus., Cephalopoda, 1849, 

 61; C.M.M., 3; Man. Conch. (1), i, 180; M.N.Z.M., 3. Todarodes (?) 

 Sloanii, Gr&y, Chall. Rep., xvi, 34 ; Index, 58. Ommato-strephes sagit- 

 tatus Sloanei, Gray : Pfefft-r, " Synopsis der oes;opsiden Cephalopoden," 

 1900, 179. 



Body cylindrical ; fin rather more than one-third the length of the 

 body ; sessile arms compressed, cups equal, oblique, in 2 rows, higher 

 side of rings with acute teeth, lower smooth ; tentacular arms 

 slightly keeled externally, cups of lower part small, in 2 rows, of 

 middle part in 4 rows ; rings with distant teeth all round. Colour 

 purplish, caused by minute dots placed close together ; beak black. 

 (Gray.) 



Type in the British Museum. 



Hob. West Pacific Ocean, from Japan to New Zealand ; Otago ; 

 Akaroa ; Sumner ; Lyttelton ; Wellington ; Hauraki Gulf. 



Remark. The figure is that of 0. sagittatus, Lam., which, however, 

 does not differ verv much from 0. Sloanii. 



