CEPHAI.OPODS OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA. 



305 



Type , MeUagroleuthis hoyki Pfeffer, 1900, described from deep water off the western coast of Central 

 America. But the one species is known. 

 Meleagroteuthis hoylei Peffer, 1900. (PI. L, fig. 1-3; pi- u; pi. lii, fig. 5-7.) 



Mclcagroteuthii hoylei Pfeffer, 1900, p. 170 (very incomplete description), 

 (no species named) Hoyle, 1904a, p. 13, 20. 

 hoylei Joubin, 1905, p. 64-69 (luminous organs). 

 Pfefier, 1908a, p. 292 (full description). 

 Hoyle, 1909, p. 272 (merely listed). 

 Hoyle, 1910, p. 411 (merely listed). 

 Animal of moderate size, its general outline, including tlie arms, more or less spindle-shaped. 

 Body short, robust, bluntly conical, widest near the front, and tapering to a rounded point behind; 



texture firmly semigelatinous; mantle thick, its anterior mar- 

 gin rotmded, somewhat emarginate below the funnel with 

 very obtuse lateral angles, barely produced above to form an 

 obscure anteriorly projecting angle in the median line . Lock- 

 ing apparatus well developed; nuchal cartilage a somewhat 

 spoon-shaped plate; on either side of the base of the funnel 

 a heavy, deeply excavated, pyriform cartilage, terminated by 

 a broadly refle.xed, membranous margin (pi. u, fig. 5). 



Fins short, broad, semi- 

 circular, together forming a 

 transverse ellipse ; about two- 

 fifths as long as the mantle; 

 well lobed in front and 

 behind; posteriorly not at- 

 tached as far as Uie extreme 

 tip of the body, but broadly 

 continuous with one another 

 above it. 



Head enonnous.rounded , 

 strongly asymmetrical, de- 

 flected to the right so that its 

 longitudinal axis shows a di- 

 vergence of some 30° from 

 that of the body; tliis state apparently brought alx)ut chiefly through 

 the extraordinary development of tlie left eye, which includes nearly 

 one-half of the total bulk of the head, the diameter of its lid opening 

 more than twice that of the right (pi. LII, fig. 6-7); right eye well devel- 

 oped, but of verj- moderate size. (The distribution of the phosphores- 

 cent organs shows various eccentricities apparently correlated with this 

 condition; but see below.) A small, slender, but fairly prominent 

 papilla (the so-called "olfactory process") situated well back of each 

 eye and posterior in direction. Fimnel short, broad, prominently con- 

 stricted in front and with a sharp downward flexion; within equipped witli a flap-like valve and ;m 

 elaborate "funnel organ," comprising a large A-shaped dorsal pad and two elongate lateral pads (pl.i.i, 



fig- 4) 



Arms considerably longer than the mantle, in general subequal, but tlie dorsal and ventral arms 

 slightly the shortest, so that the order of length may perhaps be stated as 3 = 2, i, 4; connected at base 

 by a very short umbrella, which continues along the outer edges of the ventral arms to their tips; all 

 the arms squarish, a narrow keel-like membrane bordering the sucker-bearing area, the first three pairs 

 with a membranous carina along their distal portions. Suckers deeply basin-shaped, obliquely placed 



Fig. 13. — Meleagroteuthis hoylei, sucker from 

 dorsal arm; camera drawing from mount in 

 balsam. [109.] 



I'iG. 14. — y,I deu^triileulhis hoylei, 

 sucker from near middle of tentacle 

 club; camera drawing from mount 

 in balsam. [109.] 



