Boone, Mollusca, Cruises of ''Eagle" and "Am," 1921-28 177 



Distribution: Found off the east coast of North America, from 

 Cape Cod, Mass., southward to the Marquesas Keys, Florida, and in 

 the West Indies at St. Kitts and off Glover Reef, British Honduras. 

 Verrill records this species as abundant in the "Fish Hawk" dredg- 

 ings off Massachusetts and the northeast Atlantic States in deep 

 water. Bathymetric occurrence: 20 to 233 fms. 



Material examined : One specimen, dredged in 100 fms., Marque- 

 sas Keys, Florida, 1924, by the "Ara." 



Color : In life this species is pale translucent, with delicate opales- 

 cent tints and rosy chromatophores. 



Technical description: A small specimen. Body short, subcylin- 

 drical, dorsoventrally compressed, not quite twice as long as wide, 

 posteriorly rounded ; anterior mantle margin a little produced in the 

 median dorsal region extending forward. The fin is large, rounded, 

 about two-thirds the length of the body; the width of the fin is a 

 little more than one-half the body width. The head is large, rounded, 

 one-half the body length, wider than long. The eyes are large, promi- 

 nent, with the lower eyelid slightly thickened. The arms are small, 

 increasing in length in the order 1, 2, 4, 3, the first, or dorsal pair, 

 being decidedly shorter than the others. The lateral and ventral arms 

 are subequal. The suckers are in two regular rows on the lateral 

 and ventral arms in both sexes; those suckers along the middle of 

 the arms become conspicuously larger. The suckers are deep, sub- 

 globose, laterally attached, with a small aperture and smooth rim. 

 The marginal web along beside the suckers forms a conspicuous saw- 

 teeth effect. In the male the left dorsal arm is specialized. The ten- 

 tacular arms are very long, slender, elastic, with the club dilated, 

 with the suckers numerous, unequal, arranged in approximately eight 

 rows ; the suckers of the two or three rows next to the upper margin 

 are three or four times as broad as the others and with a row of small 

 denticles on the horny rim. The pen is small, very delicate, pen- 

 shaped anteriorly, the shaft narrowing posteriorly; the lanceolate 

 wing extending along the posterior half of the shaft. The upper jaw 

 is a decidedly incurved beak without a notch at the base. The lower 

 jaw is strongly incurved with a wide rounded lobe on the median 

 region of the cutting edges. 



References: Heteroteuthis tenera Verrill, Amer. Journ. Sci. and 

 Arts, 3rd series, vol. XX, p. 392, 1880; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 vol. Ill, p. 360, 1880 ; Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. V, 

 p. 357, pi. 46, figs. 2-2d, 3-3b, 1881; Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 



