Boone, Mollusca, Cruises of "Eagle" and "Ara," 1921-28 195 



Technical description: Robson in his "Monograph of Recent 

 Cephalopoda," part I, p. 57, pi. 1, fig. 1, etc., has given a masterly 

 diagnosis of this species based upon an extensive series of animals. 



The "Ara" specimens present an unusually fine series of this spe- 

 cies, ranging in size from young, half-escaped from the capsule, to 

 part of an adult of 6 to 8 feet web diameter. The mother and nest of 

 522 young are especially interesting, and, so far as I am aware, they 

 represent the only catch of this kind on record. 



References : Octopus vulgaris Lamarck, Bull. Soc. Phil. Paris, II, p. 

 130, 1798. 



Octopus (Octopus) vulgaris Robson, Mon. Cephal. Brit. Mus., p. 57, 

 pi. 1, fig. 1, text figs. 6, 7, 1929. 



Octopus (Octopus) verrilli Hoyle 

 Plate 122. 



Type : This species was founded on two very young specimens, one 

 taken by the "Blake" at Station 142, Flannegan Passage, 27 fms., the 

 other taken at Station 278, off Barbados. Depository not stated. 



Distribution: Apparently restricted to the type localities and the 

 three specimens taken by the "Ara," off Miami, Florida, in 200 fms., 

 March 31, 1926. 



Color : There is no record of the color of the living specimens. Ver- 

 rill records from dead specimens that the entire surface of the body 

 above and below had numerous large round, reddish brown or dark 

 brown spots, usually with a darker center, between which spots there 

 were numerous smaller chromatophores. The inner surfaces of the 

 web and arms he described as being yellowish white. The "Ara" 

 specimens, which are about of a diameter of four to four and a half 

 inches, have been so long preserved that the color is too faded to merit 

 description. 



Hoyle (1886) pointed out that the name pictus originally given this 

 species by Verrill was preoccupied by Brock's Australian pictus. Rob- 

 son (1929) pointed out that there is a still earlier usage of the name 

 for an octopus by de Blainville (1828). 



Technical description: The largest of the "Ara" specimens meas- 

 ures : total length, 78 mm. ; arm, 44 mm. from base to tip. The body 



