3i6 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Subgenus Iridoteuthis Naef 1912. 

 Iridotheuthis Naef 1912. p. 247. 



Body extremely short and rounded; transversely compressed. Nuchal commissure very broad, 

 reaching to a point opposite the anterior margin of the fins. Fins exceedingly large, their basal attach- 

 ment relatively narrow. Mantle produced far forward ventrally so as to nearly conceal the head and 



funnel. Head very large, the eyes much swollen and protruding. 

 Arms very unequal; dorsal and second pairs short; third pair con- 

 siderably longer. Photogenic organs inconspicuous, leaving the 

 greater portion of the ink sac uncovered. 



Type. — Stoloteuthis iris Berry 1909 (monotypic); described from 

 the Hawaiian Islands. 



Stoloteuthis (Iridoteuthis) iris Berry 1909. (PI. t, fig. 1, 2.) 



Stoloteuthis iris Berry igog, p. 410, 418. fig 3. 

 Iridotkeuthis iris Naef Igl2, p. 247. 



Body small, short, stout; much compressed and flattened later- 

 ally, rounded very abruptly behind; width and length dorsally 

 about equal and both greatly exceeded by the depth. Mantle 

 smooth, broadly continuous above with the integument of the head 

 from which it is delimited only by a rather prominent cutaneous 

 line or shallow fold; anterior ventral margin produced forward 

 beneath the eyes and far past them to form a broad, deeply convex 

 lobe, which almost entirely conceals the funnel and ventral surface 

 of the head to which its upturned anterior margin is closely applied. 

 A shallow notchlike indentation in the free anterior edge of the lobe 

 permits the tip of the funnel to be seen; convex central region of 

 lobe differentiated from the rest of the mantle surface as a large, 

 slightly raised and flattened, heart-shaped area. Laterally, as in 

 Verrill's Nectoleuthis, the mantle margin "recedes in such a way as 

 to leave the large prominent eyes exposed. " Fins relatively enor- 

 mous, thin, their outline rounded oblong to subcircular; much 

 narrowed at the base; slightly broader and conspicuously longer 

 than the body, exceeding it both anteriorly and posteriorly; ante- 

 rior margin reaching to the eyes, its extremity rounded; posterior 

 margin obtusely pointed ; the plane along which the fins are attached 

 is considerably above the median horizontal plane of the body. 



Head extremely large; short, wide, flattened. Eyes large, so 

 swollen and protruded in the only specimen at hand that they have 

 lost all appearance of having free lids, perhaps because in pushing 

 outward they have evaginated the usual circular lid fold; they are 

 situated in the angle of the mantle margin above the ventral lobe. 

 Funnel visible only after the removal of the mantle lobe ; very broad 

 at base, thence rapidly tapering to a sudden and deep constriction 

 which occurs just in advance of the middle; entire extremity 

 beyond the constriction swollen and thickened; a secondary gland- 

 like swelling occurs on the dorsal external aspect of the funnel in 

 this region, terminating in a very short blunt papilla which fits 

 in between the true tip of the funnel and the bases of the ventral arms; walls of funnel thick, the 

 interior narrowed and of relatively small capacity; aperture very minute. Funnel organ large, occu- 

 pying almost the entire interior surface posterior to the median constriction; dorsal cushion with widely 

 flaring lateral wings, almost trilobate in outline; ventro-lateral pads large, wide, and very loosely 



Fig. 27. — Stoloteuthis iris, lateral view of 

 type [31]. X 4. Drawn by R. L. Hud- 

 son. 



