280 LIVERPOOL . MARINE BIOLOGY COMMITTEE REPORT. 



1851. Loligo marmora, Ver., Geph. Medit., p. 95, pi, xxxvii. 

 1853. Loligo marmorce and L. media, Forbes aud Hanley, Brit. 

 Moll , vol. iv, p. 228-230, pi. qqq, figs. 1, 2 

 1869. Loligo media, Jeffreys, Brit. Conch., vol v, p. 132. 



Two specimens, labelled " May 25 and 24, 1886," one 

 male, one female. 



Of the two specimens examined, one has the caudal 

 extremity produced into a slender tapering process several 

 centimetres long, while in the other it terminates in a point 

 only about one centimetre long ; such differences in the 

 form of the body are frequent in this species, and have led 

 previous observers to establish new species based in error on 

 this character. Verany's Loligo marmorce, for example, is 

 only one of the short-bodied individuals, and was recognized 

 by d'Orbigny as a female. It has been suggested that the 

 difference between these two forms is a sexual one, and this 

 is borne out by the two specimens in the present collection, 

 for while the shorter is a female, the longer is a male, and 

 has the ventral arm on the left side modified in the usual 

 way, that is, on the distal half of it the suckers are converted 

 into conical papillae. Steenstrup,* however, states that he 

 has seen males and females of both long and short forms. 



* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. xx, p. 87. 



