CEPHALOPODA OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



287 



Alloposus mollis Verrill 1880. 



? Haliphron atlanticus Steenstrup 1859, p. 183 {fide Hoyle). 

 Alloposus mollis Verrill 1880, p. 394. 



Alloposus mollis Verrill 1881, p. 366, 420, 434, pi. 50, 51, figs. 3-4. 

 Alloposus mollis Hoyle 1SS6, p. 7, 7^. 



Alloposus mollis Joubin i8g5, p. 4, 13, 55, pi. 5, fig, i, 3, 10, n, pi. 6. 

 Alloposus mollis Joubin igoo, p. n, 30, 127, pi. 5, fig. 14, 15; pi. 11, fig. 1. 

 Alloposus mollis Berry 1909. p. 418 (locality record only). 



Body large, soft, smooth, semigelatinous in consistency, in shape ovoid, widest in front, narrower 

 and rounded posteriorly. 



Head short and very broad; when contracted the lids of the large prominent eyes appear to have 

 distinct openings. Mantle opening very wide and ftdl, extending in two broad pouchlike curves 

 from the median point of union with the ventral commissure to a point just past the eye on either side. 

 Medio-ventral septum or commissure well developed, extending nearly to the anterior margin of the 

 mantle, and thence reaching its dorsal attachment through a sinus in the posterior margin of the 

 funnel. Funnel enormous and almost entirely exposed; its apex reaching slightly past the eyes; 

 fused with the ventral integument of the head for almost its entire length. Funnel organ extremely 

 anterior in position and very large, comprising a broad W-shaped pad of a conspicuous brown ochre 

 color; posterior lobes rounded; anterior lobes acute and almost meeting in the median line below 

 (fig. 12). 



Arms moderate, decreasing in length and degree of attenuation from the dorsal to the ventral pair 

 (in the present specimen their extremities are badly mutilated); connected at the base by a broad 

 membranous umbrella, the latter attaining its greatest extent between the arms of the dorsal pair which 

 it interwebs for much the greater portion of their length. Suckers large, elevated, deep, their rims of 

 somewhat more massive consistency than the other tissues of the animal ; they are in two rows, or rather 

 in a single more or less zigzag row which most conspicuously approaches the two-rowed condition after 

 reaching the margin of the umbrella (at about the thirteenth sucker on the dorsal arms). 



The entire integument is of a somewhat stringy semigelatinous consistency. It does not preserve 

 well and is badly torn away from the right side of the present specimen. 



Color of specimen preserved in formalin and alcohol a muddy buff, numerous brownish chromato- 

 phores are distributed over the dorsal surface and to a considerably less extent below. 



Measurements oh Alloposus mollis. 



Total length 147 + 



Tipotbody to base of umbrella between dorsal arms 65 



Length of body 50 



Width of body 46 



Width across eyes >. 51 



Length of — 



Right dorsal arm 82-f 



Left dorsal arm 60+ 



Right second arm 90 



Length of— mm. 



Left second arm 72+ 



Right third arm 65 



Left third arm 51 + 



Right ventral arm 60-f- 



Left ventral arm 59+ 



Umbrella between dorsal arms 54 



Umbrella between ventral arms 44 



Funnel 38 



Diameter of one of largest suckers 4 



A cotype (from Fish Hawk station 893) is in the 



September i$ t 



Type. — In the United States National Museum. 

 Yale University Museum. 



Type locality. — Fish Hawk station 880, 252 fathoms, off Newport, Rhode Island, 

 1880, three specimens. 



Distribution. — Off Newport, Rhode Island (Verrill), off Chesapeake Bay (Verrill); north Atlantic 

 (Hoyle, Joubin); off Marthas Vineyard. Massachusetts (Verrill); off Delaware Bay (Verrill), off the 

 Azores (Joubin). 



Pailolo Channel, Hawaiian Islands (Albatross). 



Verrill gives the bathymetric range of the species as 236 to 1,346 fathoms. Fragments of this species 

 have been obtained from a depth of 1,735 fathoms and likewise from the surface. 



