1912.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 431 



Remarks. — This beautiful little squid was originally described 

 from three individuals in the Stanford University collections thought 

 to be from Japan, but in reality of quite uncertain origin. This 

 habitat was, however, confirmed in a most interesting manner, 

 almost immediately upon the preparation of the original diagnosis, 

 by the receipt through the kindness of Dr. Harold Heath of three 

 "squids with luminous dots," sent to him from Japan by Dr. Ijima. 

 These were the specimens mentioned above from Misaki and proved 

 to be identical in every essential feature with the types, entirely 

 confirming in every particular the characters which I had depended 

 upon as diagnostic. Both the Stanford specimens and those sent 

 by Dr. Ijima are beautifully preserved, are nearly of the same size, 

 and apparently fully grown. One of the largest, if not the largest 

 species of the genus, A. scintillans, is differentiated from the pre- 

 viously described forms in the following apparently constant 

 characters : 



1. The great number of photophores on the ventral surface and 

 the comparative obscurity of their bilateral arrangement as well 

 as the absence of distinct longitudinal series. 



2. The presence of only one row of hooks (the ventral) on the 

 tentacle club, with but two elements present even here. 



3. The replacement of the dorsal row of hooks present in other 

 species by a single or slightly zigzag series of minute suckers. 



4. The large number of suckers in the four distal rows on the 

 club and the fact that these occupy nearly two-thirds of the total 

 length. 



5. The usual presence of four suckers and four pads in the fixing 

 apparatus. 



6. The detailed structure of the sessile arms which appears to 

 differ constantly from the careful account given by Hoyle (1904, 

 p. 37) in regard to A. hoy lei. 



With these features in mind, it is by no means difficult to separate 

 A. scintillans from either the Atlantic A. pfefferi or the A. hoylei 

 of the South and East Pacific, 14 with both of which it is, however, 

 closely allied. It is to be expected that any structure so complex 



14 Chun, in a recent monograph (1910, p. 78), unites both of these forms 

 under the earliest name applied to a member of the genus, A. morisii Verany, 

 1837, and gives a large number of exquisitely beautiful figures of a series sup- 

 posed to be identical. The evidence offered is certainly suggestive, but does not 

 appear to the present writer to be conclusive proof that we have but a single 

 cosmopolitan species of Abraliopsis, however closely related otherwise the various 

 forms may be. 



