328 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Prevailing color of animal preserved in alcohol, a pale buff brown ; the gladius showing through the 

 dorsal integument as a very prominent medio-longitudinal line. Chromatophores brownish; most 

 numerous on the upper surface of the head, which is thus rendered very dark in color; much less numer- 

 ous on the dorsal aspect of the mantle and below largely replaced by the bluish photophores which 

 are strongly contrasted with the chromatophores in color. Buccal membrane almost uniformly pale, 

 with only a few scattered chromatophores. 



Gladius with a thickened midrib; wings unthickened, very delicate, and with distinctly angular 



margins. 



Measurements or Abralia astrosticta. 



Length of — mm. 



Left dorsal arm 1 1 



Right second arm 13 



Left second arm 15 



Right third arm 12 



Left third arm 12 



Right ventral arm 13 



Left ventral arm 13.5 



Tentacle 23 



Tentacle club 4 



Funnel 6. 5 



mm. 



Total length 65 



Length exclusive of tentacles 56. 5 



Length of mantle, dorsal 34 



Extreme length of fins n 



Length of fins at base 9 



Width across fins 22 



Width of mantle 10 



Width of head 9 



Length of — 



Head 8 



Right dorsal arm n 



Type. — A female; catalogue No. 214313, United States National Museum [S. S. B. 171]. 



Type locality. — Albatross station 4122, 192 to 352 fathoms depth, off Barbers Point Light, Oahu, 

 bottom of coarse coral sand and shell, July 26, 1902; one 9 specimen. 



Distribution. — Hawaiian Islands (Albatross). 



Material examined. — No other specimens than the type are known. 



Remarks. — This very beautiful little squid is a member of a rare and exceedingly curious group of 

 cephalopods which have been sparsely taken at divers times and in many widely separated localities, 

 and the interrelationships of which are by no means as yet clearly understood. They are Enoploteu- 

 thids chiefly characterized by the double row of hooks on the arms supplanted distally by suckers, and 

 the extensive development of photogenic organs over the entire ventral surface of the head and body, 

 though not within the mantle cavity, as in the case of certain forms similar to some which will be 

 described later. The peculiar features of the group were first recognized (although only partially) by 

 Gray, who in 1849 founded the genus Abralia for their reception. Many years later (Joubin 189') 

 a second genus, Abraliopsis, was erected for the reception of certain Abralia-Wke forms, unique in the 

 possession of a conspicuous scries of pigmented swellings at the tips of the ventral arms, and further 

 distinguished by the deep violet color of the buccal membrane, somewhat different structure of the 

 tentacle club, bilaterally symmetrical arrangement of the photophores, and the presence of three 

 instead of two series of these organs upon the ventral arms. A few years ago Pfeffer, on the supposition 

 that the type species of Gray (.4. armata Quoy and Gaimard) would be found congeneric with Abrali- 

 opsis, replaced that term by Abralia and advanced the new name Askroteuihis for the group thus left 

 without a cognomen. More recently, however, he has once more returned to the older and more familiar 

 arrangement, for upon examination the type specimen of A. armata proved that species to be after all 

 an Asteroteuthis or true Abralia in the accepted sense. 



The position of the Hawaiian species now under consideration is in many respects anomalous. 

 Since the tips of the ventral arms are entirely normal, bear suckers at their extremities, and lack all 

 indications of terminal pigmented organs, it is most decidedly not an Abraliopsis and Pfeffer 's suggestion 

 that the specimen represents a very large Compsotenthis stage of that genus is quite untenable. This 

 is further borne out by the fact that the buccal membrane is not deep violet in color, but pale and dotted 

 with chromatophores, while the main features of the armature of the tentacle club are those of a typical 

 Abralia. On the other hand no previously described Abralia shows so strikingly symmetrical an arrange- 

 ment of the photogenic organs on the mantle, or possesses more than two series of these structures 

 on the ventral arms, or has such extremely short and wide fins. In almost every respect, therefore, 



