IN DEFENSE OF OCTOPUSES 303 



by Cuvier. The name also signifies the arm of a hundred cells, 

 and the mistake was made when the detached portion of one 

 of these many-celled arms was found clinging in the mantle 

 cavity of a female paper nautilus where it was erroneously 

 thought to be some new sort of parasitic worm. The strange 

 worm was named a hectocotylus and the error was not dis- 

 covered until further researches had been undertaken in re- 

 gard to the animal's breeding habits. It appears that the arm of 

 the male paper nautilus is extended during breeding time until 

 it looks like a long worm-like lash. This lash is charged with 

 the fertilizing spermatophores. When the male and female meet 

 they intertwine their tentacles in a medusa-like embrace, and 

 when they disengage from their fantastic lovemaking, the end 

 of the lash is deposited under the mantle of the female, where 

 it is held for a time, for the female is not yet ready to spawn. 

 When her eggs are eventually extruded, they are fertilized by 

 the waiting sperm. The broken arm is not completely lost, for 

 the male can grow another and still another. 



The cephalopods are so delightfully versatile that they have 

 still other systems of reproducing. In some forms the hecto- 

 cotylized arm is not detached but is specially modified so that 

 it can develop and transfer spermatophores to the females' 

 mantle cavity near the oviduct. The spermatophore is itself the 

 most remarkable creation of all this complex mating. It is a 

 long tubular structure loaded with sperm, an apparatus for ex- 

 truding it, and most wonderful a cement gland for attaching 

 it to the female. It can be utilized at will; a thoughtful provision 

 considering that the female may then take her good time in de- 

 positing her eggs under favorable circumstances. In other 

 species the spermatophore is grasped by the male as it passes 

 from his mantle and is placed in her mantle cavity or to the 

 membrane around her mouth where the eggs are sometimes 

 fertilized. 



