186 Bulletin, Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. IV 



Technical description : This squid attains a length of 50 cm. 

 and is highly esteemed as a food in the Mediterranean countries. An 

 excellent color plate of the species is given by Jatta, 1896. 



The body is moderately slender, cylindrical anteriorly, tapered 

 posteriorly with the apex bluntly rounded. The anterior mantle mar- 

 gin is produced to a prominent rounded, median dorsal process and 

 into paired angles on the ventral surface, one each side of the siphon. 

 The fins are rhomboidal and in the larger adults occupy two-thirds 

 or slightly more than three-fourths of the body length, but in young 

 specimens only about one-fourth to one-half the body length. The 

 exposed portion of the siphon is short, rounded with a moderate sized 

 aperture. The head is slightly longer than wide, rounded. The eyes 

 are fairly large. The arms decrease in length in the order 3, 2, 4, 1, 

 with the third pair dorsally webbed. The suckers are of moderate 

 size, arranged in approximately two rows; the horny ring of the 

 sucker is armed with a series of jagged sharp teeth. The tentacular 

 arms are quite long and with well-developed clubs; the suckers are 

 very large in the median region, set obliquely ; the teeth of the horny 

 ring are triangulate in the large suckers ; similar but incomplete series 

 occur in the smaller suckers. On the distal third of the arm the 

 suckers are small, decreasing in size distally, set in four crowded 

 rows. The pen is very well developed, pen-point shape anteriorly, 

 sharp, with the shaft very tapered posteriorly ; the wings occupy the 

 posterior four-fifths of the pen length, widely expanded, its greatest 

 width equal to one-fourth of its length ; lanceolate, with the outer mar- 

 gins broadly rounded, gradually tapered in both directions. 



References : Loligo vulgaris Lamarck, Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat., vol. I, p. 

 132, 1799. Paris. — Jatta, Fauna und Flora, des Golfes von Nea- 

 pel, Mon. 23, p. 169, tav. 3, fig. I, 1896 (with critical diagnosis 

 and full synonymy). Naef, ibid, Mon. 35, p. 197, text figs. 91-93, 

 1923 (growth stages critically discussed and figured with full 

 synonymy). Joubin, Res. Campag. Sci. Monaco, fasc. XVII, p. 13, 

 1900. 



Genus: SEPIOTEUTHIS Blainville. 

 Sepioteuthis sloanii Leach. 



Plates 115, 116 and 117. 



Type : Leach's manuscript (1817) type was from the West Indies : 

 one specimen from Honduras, another, without locality, from the 

 "Sloane Mus." Both are deposited in the British Museum. 



