BATHTPELAGIC SQUID BATHYTEUTHIS 37 



tlie ends, and sometimes the notch is so deep that the tootli will have 

 two small, pointed cusps. The largest specimen in the collection, 75 

 mm in mantle length, has as many as 17 protuberances around the 

 aperture; of these, 7 are proper teeth, truncate to rounded and a little 

 more closely packed than usual, while the remainder are merely low 

 knobs that give a scalloped appearance to the posterior half of the 

 border of the ring. Occasionally large suckers will have nearly smooth 

 or scalloped apertures. 



The sucker rings from the arms of a specimen 56 mm in mantle 

 length are described first. The outer rings on the suckers of the arms 

 bear 3 to 4 concentric rows of small chitinous papillae (pi. 4h). The 

 papillae are minute knobs on the outer margin and gradually increase 

 in length on the rows toward the aperture. The innermost row that 

 borders the aperture has numerous, small, elongate papillae that 

 project into the aperture and give the appearance of being small teeth 

 on the inner sucker rings. Together the teeth of the inner sucker ring 

 and the papillae of the outer ring make a double-rowed armature. 



The inner chitinous sucker rings are subglobular; the walls are 

 broadest distally, and they taper to their narrowest dimension proxi- 

 mally. The sucker rings on the first arms bear 9-15 small, truncate to 

 romided teeth. The maxmium diameter of the apertures is about 

 0.20 mm. The largest sucker ring aperture on the second arms is also 

 0.20 mm. The dentition of the rings is variable. The larger rings have 

 about 12-18, usually 14—16 small, low, tiimcate, subtnmcate, or slightly 

 pointed teeth. The inconsistency in dentition holds for smaller suckers 

 also, but they generally have about 9-12 teeth. The sucker rings may be 

 nearly smooth or scalloped, or they may have truncate or pointed 

 teeth. The suckers on the third arms have maximum ring apertures of 

 about 0.20 mm. The rings bear from 9-18 very small teeth, which are 

 generally truncate, but sometimes rounded in shape. The sucker rings 

 on the fourth arms are about 0.16 mm in maximum diameter, and they 

 bear between 8 and 18 teeth, more frequently 10-14. Generally the 

 smaller rings have fewer teeth but this does not always hold ; one me- 

 dium-sized ring had 18 closely spaced teeth. Nonnally the larger 

 suckers have 10-14 teeth. The teeth usually are truncate to slightly 

 rounded with their bases set apart, but occasionally the te^th will be 

 vei-y closely packed. A few rings are nearly smooth to slightly 

 scalloped. 



Since dentition varies slightly with the size of the animal, the fol- 

 lowing description of suckers from a specimen 38 mm in mantle length 

 is given. 



The diameter of the outer ring from the largest sucker on arm I is 

 0.22 mm and of the inner ring aperture 0.16 mm (pi. 4c). The largest 



