SEPIOLIDAE 479 



The rather fragile, white shell is a chambered cone coiled in a flat spiral, 

 usually less than i inch in diameter and with the coils not in contact. Each 

 small chamber in the shell is divided from its neighbor by a nacreous-white, 



Figure 98. The white, inch-long shells (a and b) of Spin/la spirilla Linne are 



commonly washed ashore on southern beaches, but the squid-like animal (c) lives 



at great depths and is very seldom captured alive. 



concave, fragile septum or wall. There is a small siphonal tube running back 

 into the shell and piercing the septa. These shells are cast up on the beaches 

 quite commonly. The body is short and cylindrical, and surrounds the shell 

 almost completely except for two small areas. The 8 sessile arms and 2 pe- 

 dunculated tentacular arms are very short. 



Myopsid Squid — transparent cornea over eyes; pupils crescent-shaped 



Family SEPIOLIDAE 

 Genus Rossia Owen 1828 



Short, "tubby" animals whose bodies are rounded at the end. The man- 

 tle edge is free all around. 8 arms short with 2 to 4 rows of spherical suckers 

 which have smooth, horny rims. The two tentacular arms can be almost 

 entirely withdrawn. The internal pen is slender, lanceolate and very thin and 

 delicate. The rather large, semi-circular fins are on the middle of the sides of 

 the body. Eye with small eyelid on the lower side, none above. No sulcus 

 or notch on front of the eye. 



Rossia pacifica Berry Pacific Bob-tailed Squid 



Alaska to San Diego, California. 



Total length, not including the tentacles, 3 to 4 inches. Body smooth, 

 mantle flattened above and below, rounded behind. Fins large, semi-circular 

 or subcordate, with a free anterior lobe, their attachment more or less obhque 

 to the general plane of the body. Color in life unknown; in alcohol, reduced 

 to brownish buff, heavily spotted above and in less degree below with pur- 

 plish chromatophore dots, which extend even over the fins, although fewer 

 on under surfaces and margins. This is the only Rossia recorded on the 

 Pacific Coast, and it is rather abundant from 9 to 300 fathoms. 



