116 



FESTSKRIFT FÖR LILL JEKORG 20 



with an unpaired median salivary duct" (Pelseneer 1. c. p. 20) \ Spirula has in this 

 pect outdistanced the OEgopsid type and nearly reached the Scpia-Loligo type in 

 which also the two glands have one median duct. In this case too Rossia and Se- 

 piola are very instructive, as the former has a simple posterior ("untere") salivary 

 gland the latter a double (Brock). Spirula is therefore in this respect more similar 

 to the Myopsid type than Rossia. 



Another character that Pelseneer regards as uniting Spirula to the OEgop- 

 sids is the "liver not traversed by oesophagus, aorta etc." in Spirula. This is how- 

 ever of no importance, for several reasons. First, because the oesophagus and the 

 aorta make, even in many OEgopsids, a longitudinal impression on the liver so that 

 they are more (e. g. Vcranya, Enoploteuthis) or less (c. g. Todarodcs) imbedded in 

 the said organ; the phenomenon might occur, and would be easily explained, that, 

 even in such a form, the glandular mass of the liver grew round the oesophagus and 

 the aorta, as a coalescence of two lobes of the same gland is by no means unusual. 

 Secondly, it must be observed that the oesophagus and the aorta do not traverse 

 the liver in all Myopsids, for instance not in Rossia (Owen, Brock) in which form 

 they only "in einer leichten medianen Depression der Dorsalflüche verlaufen" (Brock 

 1. c. p. 546). But it is perhaps of more importance that in another related Myopsid, 

 Inioteuthis morsci Verill we find the liver completely divided into two lobes only 

 connected by a narrow bridge, and in that form the aorta and the oesophagus pass 

 dorsally between these lobes 2 . We see thus that the Myopsids show several modi- 

 fications in regard to the development of the liver and its relation to the aorta and 

 the oesophagus, but on the whole it is characteristic for them to have the liver divi- 

 ded into two free or coalesced lobes both ventrally and dorsally. This is exactly the 

 state of the case with Spirula. In that animal the liver consists of "two equal mas- 

 ses, a right and a left" (Pelseneer 1. c. p. 21) or "two symmetrical lobes" (Owen 

 1. c. p. 10 Ann. Mag. 1879). There is thus no doubt that the liver of Spirula resem- 

 bles that of Sepia more than that of the OEgopsids. 



"Renal orifices sessile" is another of the characters which Pelseneer gives 

 as indicating Spirula's affinity with the OEgopsids. But in the text p. 26 he says 

 about these orifices: "they are sessile but surrounded by a prominent cushion". 

 May not this "prominent cushion" be a slightly developed papilla 3 ? It is, anyhow, 



1 In the more primitive form, Spirula australis, the posterior salivary gland "appears to be single" 

 hut "is deeply grooved along the middle of its dorsal aspect" - — "Viewed from behind, the posterior 

 salivary glands are seen to he a pair" — - - and there must according to Owen be two ducts, one "on 

 V ide of the gullet". Conf. Ann. ami Mag. Nat. Mist. sei. 5, Vol. 3, p. 10. 



-' Appkllöf: Japanska Cephalopoder, K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd. 21, p. 19. 

 I'ii 1 .ii.k's figure of these orifices nothing can be seen plainly. 



