Behky. — -Cephalopoda from the Kermadec Islands. 



137 



together ; in length, aubsqual, but the lateral pairs slightly exceeding the 

 dorsal and ventral ; stout, conical, little attenuate, rapidly tapering ; the 

 first 4 suckers on each arm in a single row, the remainder crowded and 

 in 2 series which are well separated from one another ; the suckers attain 

 their maximum in size and crowding at a point just below where the margin 

 of the umbrella joins the arm. Umbrella thick, short, of slightly greater 

 extent dorsal ly than ventrally, and laterally than dorsally, where it extends 

 for less than a quarter the length of the arms ; it is continued as a fleshy 

 fold along the outer surfaces of all the arms. 



Surface nearly smooth below, but ornamented above by numerous low, 

 rough, conical tubercles, the skin between which may be either (1) smooth, 

 or (2) finely papillose with smaller tubercle 3 which are similar to the more 

 persistent larger ones except in ize. The finer wrinklings and papulations 

 extend over the entire outer and lateral surfaces of the arms, and on the 

 inner surface of the umbrella as well. There are no conspicuous supra- 

 ocular cirri, but the eye-opening appears to be surrounded by a circlet of 

 5 or 6 low and indistinct papillae. 



Colour a dark slate, shading somewhat lighter below. The inner sur- 

 faces of the suckers are a conspicuous light brown, sometimes shading to 

 cream. 



Two females of this species are in the collection, probably neither of 

 them full grown. The smaller is rather the better preserved, and has been 

 selected as the type (S.S.B. 405). Both were taken alive among the rocks 

 by W. E. B. Oliver in 1908. 



Measurement' 



Total length 



Length of body, dorsal 



Tip of body to base of dorsal arms 



Width of body 



Width of neck 



Width across eyes . . 



Length of funnel . . 



Length of right dorsal arm 



Length of left dorsal arm 



Length of right second arm 



Length of left second arm 



Length of right third arm 



Length of left third arm 



Length of right ventral arm 



Length of left ventral arm . 



Length of umbrella between dorsal arms 



Length of umbrella between ventral arms 



P. oliveri is one of the rough-sk : nned Polypi, perhaps allied to P. vitiensis 

 Hoyle (1886, p. 84), which I have not seen, but the description of which 

 certainly differs in a good many particulars. The present species does not 

 seem to offer any very striking characters of its own, but a careful search 

 through all the available literature has failed to reveal any other named 

 form with which its union seems to me justifiable. To P. kermadecensis, 

 the other member of the genus from the Kermadecs, it is in no degree 

 related. 



The species is named for Mr. W. R. B. Oliver. 



