20 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 291 



pends upon the age and the state of preservation of the specimens. 

 Throughout his work Joubin utilized only the name Benthoteuthis 

 m^galops^ apparently relying on Chun's and Pfeffer's usage. 



The final section of Grimpe's major work on the cephalopod fauna 

 of the North Sea (1925) consists of an annotated systematic review. 

 The scheme of classification is similar to that given in his work of 

 1922 including the use of the "provisional family-group" Bathyteu- 

 thina, Bathyteuthidae Pfeifer, 1900, and the subfamilies Ctenoptery- 

 ginae and Bathyteuthinae. Grimpe maintained that the differences 

 between Ctenopteryx and Bathyteuthis were so considerable as to war- 

 rant their subfamilial separation. In the footnote to Bathyteuthis^ 

 Grimpe fully concurred with Hoyle's arguments for priority of that 

 genus. 



Referring to the myopsid-reminiscent characters of BathyteutMs 

 and Ctenopteryx mentioned by Chun (1910) and Naef (1921a), 

 Grimpe placed the family at the begimiing of the Oegopsida in the 

 special family-group Bathyteuthina to indicate that a certain relation- 

 ship exists between it and the Myopsida. 



The footnote for Indoteuthis emphasizes the brevity and inconclu- 

 siveness of Robson's description of CMmoteuthis (1921) and Grimpe 

 questioned the placement of the form and, in fact, the reality of the 

 genus. Grimpe (1922) had changed the name to Indoteuthis because 

 it too closely resembled ChunioteutMs Grimpe, 1916, a cirrotuthid 

 octopod. A change of this nature, however, is illegal under the Code 

 of Nomenclature; Indoteuthis is a junior objective synonym of Chuno- 

 teuthis, which is a nomen duhiwm. 



Massy (1928) briefly described B. dbyssicola in her report of the 

 cephalopods of the Irish coast. Massy fii-st listed the specimen in 1916; 

 it was taken at 50°22'N, 11°40'W by the Helga in a midwater otter 

 trawl that fished in 700-750 fathoms. The larva, only 3.5 mm in 

 mantle length, had distinct light organs and pale reddish coloration. 

 Massy gave the distribution and vertical range from the literature. 



The first description of the male reproductive system of Bathy- 

 teuthis was presented by Robson (1932a) who used the name Bentho- 

 teuthis. Robson found two male specimens in the cephalopod material 

 obtained by the RRS Discovery; only the larger one (40 mm mantle 

 length) was mature. The "most striking" external feature, Robson 

 noted, was the total absence of hectocotylization, and in this feature 

 Benthoteuthis agrees with "essentially abyssal forms." He gave a very 

 brief description of the genitalia but deferred a more detailed discus- 

 sion until a later date. Robson concurred with Chun that the ink-sac 

 is much reduced and must be regarded as atrophied. 



Robson's report on the vast collections of decapod cephalopods taken 



