258 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



on the head and arms. The standard length of the largest one measured was o-68 m. and its wet weight 

 was 2-oi kg. This species comprised practically all the ' small ' group in Table u. Joubin (1900, p. 20) 

 first recorded H. bonelliana from the Azores: his specimens came from the whale mentioned above 

 as killed off Terceira in 1895. H. bonelliana is also eaten by sperm whales captured off Madeira (Rees 

 & Maul, 1956, p. 267). 



(Type B) Cucioteuthis unguiculatus (Molina). Plate II, figs. 3, 6 and 7. A big, stoutly-built form, 

 this species had a body large in proportion to the head, and short, thick arms: the fin was wide and 

 circular, and extended most of the body length : the colour, mostly continuous over the smooth skin 

 and uniform in tone, was a deep magenta in some specimens and purplish blue in others. Because 

 of its colour the whalemen call this squid hda azul. The largest measured had a standard length of 

 1-96 m., the head and arms comprising 0-25 m. of this length. A trunkless head-and-arms of 0-34 m. 

 could have belonged to a specimen approaching 3 m. or 10 ft. in standard length. Another head-and- 

 arms, measuring 0-28 m., weighed 4-40 kg. when wet. Of forty-three specimens from all stomachs 

 there were only two which were small enough to be classified in the ' small ' size grouping (2 to 3 ft.) 

 which otherwise was numerically large, comprising sixty-nine individuals of the other two species. 

 It would appear therefore that Cucioteuthis unguiculatus is either a migrant form whose younger, 

 smaller stages are not represented round the Azores, or that the younger stages inhabit a level not 

 explored by the sperm whale. C. unguiculatus was first recorded from the Azores by Joubin (1900, 

 p. 20), again from the Terceiran whale of 1895. 



(Type C) Tetronychoteuthis dussumierii (d'Orbigny). Plate II, fig. 7. Two whales each contained 

 one specimen. Typically fusiform, this squid had comparatively small head and arms, the latter being 

 of slim build compared with those of Cucioteuthis: the fin was well developed, sagittate and placed 

 right back: the surface of the mantle bore a close regular pattern of flattened papillose markings, 

 giving it a raised tessellated effect. The colour was reddish, tinged with magenta. One specimen was 

 072 m. in standard length and the other (which was preserved) was o-6i m. and its wet weight 1-13 kg. 

 Sperm whales in Madeira also eat it (Rees & Maul, 1956, p. 261), and these records, as Dr Rees 

 has pointed out to me, now extend the range of the species into the Atlantic,* for it has previously 

 been known from two specimens widely separated in the Indian Ocean, one from Mauritius and one 

 from the southward of Australia (Pfeffer, 19 12, p. 98). 



In 1952 Senhor Reis found one specimen of another species, identified by Dr Rees as Loligo forbesi 

 Steenstrup, in stomach contents at Horta. Girard (1892) has earlier recorded L. forbesi from San 

 Miguel and Pico in the Azores, but he does not mention whether his specimens came from a sperm 

 whale's stomach. 



To the species recorded from whales at Fayal during the present investigations must be added 

 Lepidoteuthis grimaldii Joubin, from another Azores island, San Miguel. I saw and sketched a single 

 specimen of this species when visiting the whaling station of Sao Vincent on 27 June 1949. It lacked 

 the head and was partially digested, but must have been about 1-5 m. in standard length when entire. 

 The fin was wide and deep, almost circular, and the body bore the well-marked scales which have 

 prompted the generic name. The scales could be rubbed off, and, although soft, they felt between the 

 fingers much like some fishes' scales. Joubin independently recorded the same impression in much 

 the same language, and later had to defend his remarks against criticism (Joubin, 1900, p. 77). Of this 

 singular squid there appear to be seven specimens known, and all are from the stomachs of cetacea. 

 Including the San Miguel specimen there are four recorded from the Azores. Joubin named and 

 described the species from two individuals, also headless, which were found in the sperm whale cap- 



* The status of the larval form described by Pfeffer (1912, p. 102) as Tetronychoteuthis massyae, from the Atlantic south- 

 west of Ireland, remains to be elucidated. 



