604 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1882. 



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

 715 fathoms), in several places near the eJtstern coast. 



Octopodids. — Octopods with an oval finless 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 Eledonidte 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 Verrill'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 Oephalopods." 

 The Enoploteuthis Gookii of Owen is the Sepia unguiculata of Molina 

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

 improbable " 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 8. 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 Architeuthis Verrilli and Steenstrupia 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. Stobkii 



