604 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1882. 



auspices of the United States Fish Commission, in deep water (225 to 

 715 fathoms), iu several places near the eastern coast. 



Octopodids. — Octopods with an oval fiuless body, tapering arms little 

 connected by membrane, and " mantle united to the head by a broad 

 dorsal commissure," and without complex connection with the siphon. 



The family is again subdivided by M. Fischer into two, (1) theOctopo 

 didse with two or more rows of suckers, and (2) the Eledonidse with a 

 single row of suckers. The common littoral cuttle-fishes are representa- 

 tive of the family. 



Cirrhoteuthids. — Octopods with a rather long body, provided with 

 short lateral fins (one on each side), supported by internal cartilages, 

 and " arms united nearly to the tips by a broad, umbrella- shaped mem- 

 brane or web." 



The umbrella-shaped anterior end is the most obvious characteristic. 



It is always an arm of the third pair — generally the right, but some- 

 times the left — that becomes hectocotylized in the male, the hectocotyl- 

 ization varying in extent from the entire arm to the tip only. 



Gigantic Cuttle-fishes. 



In the last account of progress in zoology reference is made to Pro- 

 fessor Yerrill's studies of the gigantic cuttle-fishes, and it was stated 

 that two specimens of Architeuthis, the genus including the giants of 

 the class, had been found 52 feet long. But huge representatives of the 

 class have been found elsewhere than the North Atlantic Ocean, and 

 have been found to differ materially from the type of the genus Archi- 

 teuthis, although apparently not as much as has been supposed. 



Professor Verrill has reviewed the conclusions formulated by Pro- 

 fessor Owen, in his " Descriptions of some new and rare Cephalopods." 

 The Enoploteuthis Gookii of Owen is the ' Sepia unguiculata of Molina 

 (1810), and Enoploteiithis molince of D'Orbigny (1845-'48), and " it is not 

 imjjrobable " that it is also specifically identical with the Enoploteuthis 

 Hartingii of Verrill (1880). The Plectoteuthis grandis of Owen is un- 

 questionably an Architeuthis, and the Ommastrephes ensifer is a Stheno- 

 teuthis, and probably the same as the S. pteropus of Bermuda. (A. J. 

 S. (3), V. 23, pp. 72-75.) 



The host of giant cephalopods has also been added to from New Zea- 

 land. Mr. T. W. Kirk has described two from that region under the 

 names Architenthls Verrilli and Steenstriipia StocMi. No generic differ- 

 ences have been signalized between the two, and Professor Verrill 

 would refer the so-called Steenstrupia to Architeuthis " without much 

 hesitation, though the tentacular clubs, if known, might show some differ- 

 ences." The species, however, "bear more resemblance to the small 

 squids, Ommastrephes and Loligo, than do the other large species hith- 

 erto discovered." The A. Verrilli had a length for head and body of 

 9 feet 1 inch, and the tentacular arms were 25 feet long. The A. Stockii 



