326 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Genus ABRALIA Gray 1849. 



Abralia Gray 1849, p. 46. 50. 

 Abralia Pfeffer 1900, p. 166, 167. 

 Asteroleulhis Pfeffer 1908a, p. 292. 

 Abralia Chun 1910, p. 57. 

 Asteroleulhis Pfeffer 1912. p. 124, 128. 

 Abralia Pfeffer 1912, p. 762. 



Fins large, sagittate; more or less pointed posteriorly, and not exceeded by the tip of the pointed 

 body. Arms with two rows of hooks throughout the greater part of their length, but with true suckers 

 at their tips; extremities of ventral arms normal. Left ventral arm hectocotylized. Dorsal row of 

 suckers on proximal portion of tentacle club suppressed in adult, leaving. one row of hooks and two rows 

 of suckers which give way to four rows of suckers distally. Buccal membrane in preserved specimens 

 pale and scattered over with reddish chromatophorcs. 



Type. — Onychoteuthis armata Quoy and Gaimard 1832 (species first mentioned); described from near 

 the island of Celebes. 



Abralia astrosticta Berry 1909. (PI. u.) 



Abralia aslrosticta Berry Igocj. p. 412, 419. fig. 4-7. 



Abralia aslrostricta Weindl 1912. p. 271-275. 



Abralia (.Compsoteiitlus) astroslicla Pfeffer 1912, p. 149, 151. 163. 



Animal of small size. Mantle firm, fleshy, cylindrical in shape, little compressed; tapering at 

 first gradually, then more abruptly to a bluntish point posteriorly. Anterior edge of mantle smooth, 

 emarginate below the funnel, and with a very slight obtuse medio-dorsal angle. Fins moderately large 

 and very wide in proportion to their length; about one-third as long as the mantle, and each one about 

 as broad as long; subterminal, triangular; attached firmly along the inner -margin for most of their 

 length; anterior lobes prominent, but posterior margins nearly straight and converging at a very obtuse 

 angle. 



Head rather large, but decidedly narrower than the body, squarish, flattened above and below; 

 "olfactory crest" comprising a series of four oblique fleshy folds behind the eye on either side. Eyes 

 large; the circular lid opening with a minute rounded sinus in front. Funnel large, subtriangular, 

 very firm and thick-walled, its center rounded and conspicuously swollen ventrally. Funnel organ 

 well developed, posterior in position; comprising a V-shaped median pad on the interior dorsal wall, 

 and a small elongate-ovate pad placed ventro-laterally to it on either side. The tip of the funnel is 

 furnished with a wide shallow flaplike valve. (PI. Li, fig. 8.) 



On its inner surface the edge of the mantle articulates with the head in the nuchal region and with 

 the base of the funnel on either side by cartilages of the form usual in the genus. The dorsal apparatus 

 consists of a simple longitudinal ridge on the mantle and a corresponding plate on the neck. The funnel 

 cartilages are elongate, slightly widest near the base, have a thickened, raised and reflexed margin, and 

 their grooves are simple, narrow, deep, and elongate (pi. Li, fig. 7); they fit over a slender linear ridgeon 

 either side of the inner surface of the mantle. 



Sessile arms stout, little attenuate; nearly of a length, but the second arms slightly the longest and 

 stoutest, and the dorsal pair a little shorter and more slender than the others, so that the formula of their 

 relative length is in general 2, 4, 3, 1 ; outer edge of arms angled and furnished with a keel, membranous 

 and poorly developed on the four dorsal arms, but increased to a fleshy carina on the arms of the third 

 pair and more particularly along the outer aspect of the ventral arms, where it is so heavy and con- 

 spicuous as to cause these arms to appear almost twice their true diameter when viewed ventrally. 

 For the greater part of their length all the arms are armed with two widely spaced alternating rows of 

 small hooks which are replaced on the extreme distal portions by a double series of minute crowded 

 suckers; the tips of the ventral arms bear suckers similar to those of the other arms and are indeed 

 entirely normal in every particular; the number of pairs of hooks on the ventral arms is about eight. 



Tentacles slender, over half as long again as the arms, cylindrical, little tapering. Club but little 

 expanded, armed with four rows of acetabula; which respectively may be described as follows: ( 1 ) On 

 the distal half of the club all four rows consist of small suckers of about equal size at any given transection 



