[CEYLON PEARL OYSTER FISHERIES 1904 SUPPLEMENTARY REPORTS, No. XIV 



REPORT 



ON THE 



CEPHALOPODA 



(i il. I I'.i I EI.) I:Y 



Professor UEUDMAN, at CEYLON, in 1902. 



BY 

 WILLIAM E. HOYLE, M.A., D.Sc, 



DIRECTOR OF THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM. 



[With THREE PLATES.] 



Tiie collection of Cephalopoda, though small, contains several forms of interest. 

 The greatest novelty is a small Octopus, with branched processes scattered over the 

 body, which I have named Polypus arborescens. In the integument of these processes 

 are certain peculiar organs, which I have described as well as the state of preservation 

 of the specimens would allow. 



A very striking peculiarity of the collection is the preponderance of Octopods ; the 

 Decapods are represented only by very few forms, and there is an entire absence of 

 any of the usual pelagic types, owing, no doubt, to the collection having been made 

 for the most part in shallow water on a continental shore. 



The number of small Octopods is very large; judging from it these little creatures 

 must swarm on the reefs in those regions. Though very interesting, these immature 

 forms are very baffling and in some respects unsatisfactory as material for a report. 

 In the first place, it is impossible to name them. Their distinctive marks admit of 

 their being grouped pretty readily into sets which presumably correspond to species, 

 but to which of the numerous named adult forms they belong it is quite impossible to 

 say. So far as I am aware, no one has yet studied or described the changes which 

 take place in an Octopus from the time of its emergence from the egg till it attains 

 maturity, and as we, are ignorant of this in the commonest forms, it is hopeless to 

 expect the information in the case of the rarer exotic species. I have, therefore, 



2 B 



