2 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 291 



zoogeographical regions defined by Powell (1951) for the Southern 

 Ocean. Dell listed 20 species of c«phalopods in the Antarctic Province 

 that is bounded in the north by the mean location of the Antarctic 

 Convergence. The list included 12 species of octopods and 8 species 

 of oegopsids (4 of them cranchiids). Every species that Dell listed, 

 endemic or cosmopolitan, presents a systematic problem, and the dis- 

 tribution and biology of these forms have been virtually unknown. 



Some other groups of the Antarctic marine fauna, however, have 

 been studied more thoroughly, primarily because of the extensive pro- 

 gram carried on by the Discmiery office. More than 30 volumes of 

 Discovery Reports have been prepared on the biology of Southern 

 Ocean organisms. The systematics and distribution of planktonic and 

 nektonic groups have been presented by Mackintosh (1934, 1937), 

 Hardy and Gunther (1935), Fraser (1936), Baker (1954), Tebble 

 ( 1960) , Marr ( 1962) , and many others. 



In 1962 the Office of Antarctic Programs of the National Science 

 Foundation initiated its program in oceanography by the deployment 

 of the USNS Eltanin to the Southern Ocean. A biological collecting 

 program of broad scope provided the opportunity to conduct detailed 

 studies on the marine fauna of Antarctica. A grant to study the sys- 

 tematics and distribution of Antarctic cephalopods was awarded to 

 G. L. Voss of the Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Miami. 

 As the large collections were sorted and identified, it became increas- 

 ingly clear that the cephalopod fauna of Antarctic waters was con- 

 siderably more extensive and more complex than had been indicated 

 by all previous surveys. Preliminary sorting and identification of the 

 collections by the writer in the winter of 1965 revealed that approxi- 

 mately 30 species of the suborder Oegopsida occur in the Southern 

 Ocean. Some of these species are relatively well known ; some represent 

 long extensions in range; several are undescribed. Nearly the same 

 situation holds for the dozen or so nominal species of benthic octopods 

 that are being studied by G. L. Voss. The finned octopods, a perpetual 

 problem group, are represented by about a half-dozen species. 



Recent additions to the cephalopod fauna of the Antarctic include 

 the Batoteuthidae, a new family of oegopsids (Young and Roper, 

 1968), the second and third specimens of the curious Prornachoteuthis 

 Hoyle (Roper and Young, 1968), the second known specimen of Cir- 

 rothauma rwuTrafyl Chun, and new species in several oegopsid families 

 (e.g., Cranchiidae, Histioteuthidae) . 



While new or rare species were being added to the fauna with the 

 increasing collections, one species, Batliyteuthlfi ahysshoJn. Hoyle, 1885, 

 emerged as the overwhelmingly dominant species of pelagic cepha- 

 lopod. It seemed to be common everywhere in the Antarctic Ocean, 



