Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlv. (1901), No. t). 



IX. On the Generic Names Octopus, Eiedone, and 

 Histiopsis. 



By William E. Hoyle. 



Received and read March Jt/i, igoi. 



I. Octopus and Eledone. 



The replacement of these time-honoured names in a 

 recent Hst of British Marine Mollusca (:0l) by the less 

 familiar Polypus and Mosc/iites, demands a few words of 

 explanation. 



In the Report on the " Challenger " Cephalopoda 



('86, p. 152), I called attention to the fact that by 



Jeffreys ('CD, p. 130) the genus Loligo was attributed to 



Schneider and not, as usual, to Lamarck. No reference, 



nor even date, was given, and the only paper by that 



author then accessible to me contained nothing that could 



fairly be called a definition of the genus. Happening to 



mention this circumstance to my friend, Mr. C. Davies 



Sherborn, he very kindly offered to look up the question 



in the MS. of his forthcoming " Index Animalium," and a 



few days later sent me the proper title of the paper and 



an abstract of its contents. I have since been successful 



in procuring a copy of the work. The result to which it 



leads being subversive of two old-established names, it 



seems, therefore, worth while to place the facts before my 



fellow-naturalists. The full title of Schneider's paper will 



be found in the Bibliography at the end of this article 



(1184), and as it is somewhat rare I extract here the more 



important passages. After criticising the definitions of 



the group of Cephalopoda, ior which he adopts the name 



July loth, igoi. 



