290 " ENDEAVOUR " SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



ovate mass of pale, flocculent material lying beneath the 

 surface membrane and surrounded by a narrower line of a 

 clearer substance as though perhaps enclosed in a transparent 

 sac. The flocculent material was better seen in the un- 

 stained, the sac-like boundary in the stained preparation. 

 Superficially the areolae remindone somewhat of the oculations 

 occurring in the integument of such octopods as Polypvs 

 marmoratus, P. bimaculatus, etc., but a similar mounted 

 preparation of one of the areolae of a specimen of P. bimacu- 

 latus from Laguna Beach, California [S.S.B. 324] shows no 

 trace of either a sac-like organ or submerged flocculent tissue. 

 In the case of the Polypvs the oculation seems to be mainly, 

 if not wholly, a matter of the arrangement, number, and 

 color of the chromatophores. 



The Australian i^ecords constitute a considerable and 

 interesting extension of the known range of the genus. 



OpISTHOTEUTHIS PERSEPHONE, Sp. nov. 



■(Plate Ixxxi., figs. 6-7; Plate Ixxxii., figs. 9-10; Plates 

 Ixxxv.-lxxxviii.) 



Animal of moderate size, in outline subdiscoid when fully 

 expanded (PI. Ixxxvii., fig. 1), othei'\vise more or less vasiform 

 (PI. Ixxxvii., fig. 2) ; tissues wrinkled and flabby. Body 

 compressed, completely confluent with the head, the whole 

 blending into the arms and umbrella so as to appear in the 

 expanded phase but a poorly defined elevation or thickening 

 in the centre of the disk. Fiiis minute, tenuous, more or 

 less median in position ; usually more than twice as broad 

 as long. 



Eyes rather small and inconspicuous. 

 Funnel posterior in position and direc- 

 tion in the discoid phase ; tubular ; very 

 narrow and slender ; aperture small ; 

 interior lined with a very delicate 

 epithelium. 



Funnel organ in general outline and 



„'. „„ „ . position similar to that of the preceding 

 iig, 66. — Opts- ^ . . . • £ 11 



thoteuthis Persephone species, comprismg a pair of small, 

 [481], funnel laid oval pads placed well back on the dorsal 

 open along medio- wall of the ca\dty and pointing toward 

 ventral line to ex- ^^^^ another in front, but the component 

 pose tunnel orsaTi. , , , , , . '- 



pads apparently much larger ni propor- 

 tion to the general dimensions of the cavity, as well as 

 more slender than in 0. pluto (Fig. 66).* 



* The funnel organ proved extremely difficult to make out satisfactorily 

 because of the mass of mucus which, in the specimen figured, filled the 

 funnel chamber. In a second specimen examined, the organ was quite 

 dndistinguishable. 



