CEPHALOPODA OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



347 



Color of preserved specimens a semitranslucent grayish white, probably colorless or opalescent 

 in life. Chromatophores light brown in color; few in number; minute; most evident are a number 

 of very small ones scattered over the posterior portion of the ventral surface of the mantle in advance 

 of the fins; there is also a transverse series forming a slightly irregular semicircle on the ventral aspect 

 a little distance back of the mantle margin. Two longitudinal series of distantly placed chromatophores 

 extend along each tentacle. 



Measurements op Liocranchia globulus. 



Type. — Catalogue No. 214315, United States National Museum [S. S. B. 262]. 



Type locality. — Albatross station 3878, surface, south of Lanai and west of Kahoolawe, April 14, 

 1902; two specimens. 



Distribution. — Hawaiian Islands (Albatross). 



Specimens op Liocranchia globulus Examined. 



Remarks. — Should this curious form prove to be a valid species, it adds one further member to 

 the very remarkable group of aberrant squids which comprise the family Cranchiidte. The inflated 

 saccular mantle here reaches practically the greatest attainable maximum of rotundity, so that a 

 specimen looks not unlike a bubble having a few appendages of small size at either pole. The nearest 

 ally of our species is self-evidently the L. reinhardtii (Steenstrup), with which indeed it is united by 

 Chun, but the latter possesses the characteristic inflation only in vastly less degree. Lonnberg (1897, 

 p. 611) has considered rotundity to be a condition in L. reinhardtii attendant upon immaturity and 

 has given figures of an unusually large specimen which is almost loliginiform. However, the largest 

 of the Albatross specimens is no whit less spherical than the youngest, and in this feature no figures 

 or measurements of L. reinhardtii which I can find on record show close approach to any of them. On 

 the other hand our knowledge of the limits of variation in these forms, either living or after preservation, 

 is still very far from complete, and Chun's suggestion that this extreme state of inflation is due to a 

 sharp contraction of the circular muscles around the mantle opening at the moment the animals were 

 killed may prove to be the true explanation. Should this be so, it is somewhat curious that all three 

 of the specimens before me chanced to be overwhelmed by the preserving fluid at exactly the same 

 moment of contraction. It is believed that the drawings show the true condition with a very fair 

 degree of accuracy, as in each case the mantle of the specimen was carefully distended by means of a 

 pipette without the exertion of undue pressure, and an attempt was even made to keep the specimens 

 so inflated suspended freely in the alcohol while the more important measurements were being taken. 



