CEPHALOPODS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 3 



Finally, I wish to thank the National Science Foundation for a 

 2-year grant (G-2901) in support of this study and for the assistance 

 which permitted the visit to the British Museum in 1958 in conjunc- 

 tion with the 15th International Congress of Zoology. This paper 

 constitutes a technical report to the National Science Foundation. 



Historical Summary 



The cephalopods of the Philippine Islands have been largely ignored 

 by previous workers. There are no papers deahng specifically with 

 Philippine cephalopods with the exception of the description of 

 Uroteuthis bartschi by Rehder. A time-consuming survey of the 

 cephalopod hterature yielded few records though undoubtedly some 

 have escaped the writer's notice. 



The first mention of Phihppine cephalopods apparently, upon the 

 authority of d'Orbigny, was Rossia subalata described by Gervais and 

 Van Beneden (1838) from Manila. Ferussac and d'Orbigny, in their 

 classic monograph (1834-48) added only two more. Octopus rugosus 

 and Octopus aculeaius. 



Tryon (1879) hsted Octopus aculeatus and Loligo subalata (=Rossia 

 subalata) from Manila, both described by Ferussac and d'Orbigny. 



In 1881, Steenstrup hsted the pygmy squid, Idiosepius pygmaeus 

 from Zamboanga. 



Although the Challenger Expedition passed through the Phihppine 

 Islands, Hoyle (1886) reported only two species from those waters: 

 Octopus granulatus from Manila and the type of Loligo galatheae 

 from off the island of Panay. 



In 1896, Castro de Elera pubhshed a systematic catalog of the 

 fauna of the Phihppines in which are hsted thirty-one species of 

 cephalopods. According to Hidalgo (1905, pp. 4-5), de Elera was not 

 a naturalist and had at his disposal only Tryon's "Manual of con- 

 chology," Paetel's "Catalogue," Semper, some of Hidalgo's works, Mollen- 

 dorff, and Boettger. De Elera's work is quite defective and he did 

 not cite sources for localities and identifications; it has been ignored 

 for systematic purposes by later workers. The de Elera species are: 



Octopus pusillus L. duvaucelii 



0. aculeatus L. hardwickei 



0. membranaceus L. chinensis 



Tremoctopus dubius L. sumatrensis 



Argonauta Mans Sepioteuthis lessoniana 



A. kochiana S. blainvilleana 



A. argo Sepiola penares 



A. nodosa S. bursa 



Loligo galatenae [sic] Loligopsis cyclura 



L. subalata L. ocellata 



