192 Bulletin, Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. IV 



References: Octopus bimaculatus Verrill, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 

 vol. XI, p. 121, pi. V, figs. 1, la, pi. VI, 1883. 



Octopus brevipes D'Orbigny. 

 Plate 120. 



Type: Collected "23° N., 35° W. de Paris." Deposited in the Paris 

 Museum. Measurement : 17 mm. long. 



Distribution: Known only from the type, to which the "Ara" 

 specimens dredged in 300 fms., fifty miles S. W. of Cape Mala, Pan- 

 ama, Pacific Ocean, add a second record. The present specimens are 

 referred to this species with some doubt, in view of the rejection of 

 D'Orbigny's species by Mr. Robson, yet the identity of the Pacific 

 specimens with D'Orbigny's imperfect description precludes their 

 being designated as new. 



Material examined : Five specimens dredged in 300 fms., 50 miles 

 S. W. of Cape Mala, Panama, Pacific Ocean, March 16, 1926, by the 

 "Ara." 



Technical description: Body very soft, almost gelatinous, ovoid, 

 its posterior margin broadly rounded; body somewhat narrowed an- 

 teriorly ; mantle margin free from a point in line with and behind the 

 upper orbital margin across the ventral surface to an identical point 

 on the opposite side, thus creating a very wide aperture. Head small, 

 scarcely as long as its dorsal width between the eyes; funnel short, 

 set almost in line with the eyes ; funnel aperture with the upper mar- 

 gin slightly longer than the lower and curved a little over the aper- 

 ture, in all five dead specimens, forming a sort of protective flap. Eye 

 large, with deep steely blue rim and medium-sized ball. Arms very 

 short, decreasing in length in the order 3, 2, 4, 1, as figured. Web 

 short, transparent, relatively of subequal arcs. Suckers in a single 

 row, set well apart. The third arm has 16 suckers; the second arm 

 also has 15 suckers; the fourth arm has 22 to 24 very small suckers, 

 and the first arm has 9 or 10 suckers. Chromatophores are very abun- 

 dant in the dead specimen and are of very jagged, irregular, blotch- 

 like contour. The beak is strong. 

 References: Octopus brevipes D'Orbigny, Voy. dans L'Amerique 



Merid., tome V, p. 22. Atlas, pi. I, figs. 1-3, 1835-43. Hist. Nat. 



Cephal. Acet., t. I, p. 22, figs. 1-3, 1835.— Robson, Mon. Cephal. 



Brit. Mus., p. 215, 1929. 



