CEPHALOPODA OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



349 



Tentacles rather short, stout, about twice as long as the arms, as compared with which they are 

 larger and heavier in every way; stalks nearly cylindrical. Clubs large, well expanded; bordered by 

 a narrow frill-like web or keel along either margin of the sucker-bearing area, supplemented dorsally 

 by a wider gracefully crenulate membrane which has its origin outside the former and lies parallel 

 to it along the distal two-thirds of the club. Suckers small, in four distinct but rather crowded rows 

 on the club; the two median series slightly the larger, but the suckers in all four rows attaining their 

 maximum near the middle of the club; distally they gradually diminish in size, and also proximally, 

 where they steadily become more widely spaced, extending down the flattened inner surface of the 

 stalk for about half its length (exclusive of the club) ; the four-rowed condition really persists throughout, 

 but on account of the tendency of the various series to press in toward the center at the same time with 

 the increase in interspacing of the suckers, the arrangement soon appears to be biserial and maintains 

 this appearance throughout most of the length of the stalk. Proximal to the point where the marginal 

 membrane of the club comes to an end some 20 to 23 of these alternating pairs of suckers may be counted. 

 Horny rings of the larger suckers minutely dentate on the upper margin with 12 to 14 sharp-curved 

 elongate teeth, which become nearly or quite obsolete below. 



Color of preserved specimen a soiled semitranslucent white. Chromatophores very minute and 

 sparsely distributed; they apparently exhibit no very definite arrangement. 



Two large photogenic organs form a conspicuous brownish patch nearly covering the ventral sur- 

 face of each eyeball and visible even through the outer integument which overlies them. The larger 

 is roughly semicircular in outline, its flatter anterior margin somewhat concave, and with the convex 

 side of the crescent-shaped smaller organ closely applied within it. The outline of both organs is in 

 the main similar to those of D. pellucida as figured by Chun, but considerably more elongate. 



Measurements of Megalocranchia fisheri. 



Total length 73 



Length of mantle (dorsal) 47 



Maximum width of mantle 23 



Extreme length of fins 12. 



Width acToss fins 12. 



Length of bead (median ) 4 



Width of head across eyes 15 



Length of— 



Right dorsal arm 6 



Left dorsal arm 6 



Length of — mm. 



Right second arm S 



Left second arm 8 



Right third arm 13 



Left third arm 12 



Right ventral arm 12 



Left ventral arm 12. 5 



Tentacle 27 



Sucker-bearing area of tentacle 18 



Tentacle club 8 



Funnel 8 



Type. — Catalogue No. 214316, United States National Museum (S. S. B. 106). 



Type locality. — .4 Ibaiross station 3883, 277 to 284 fathoms, bottom of globigerina ooze, off Mokuhooniki 

 Islet, Pailolo Channel, April 16, 1902; one specimen. 



Distribution. — Hawaiian Islands (Albatross). 



Material examined. — The type is unique. 



Remarks. — This species is a typical Megalocranchia, showing exceedingly close affinity to both the 

 M. maxima Pfeffer and the more recently described M. pellucida (Chun). The latter species is peculiar 

 in that the horny rings of the tentacular suckers are bluntly toothed, lacking the long acute teeth which 

 are characteristic of both the other species. The following rather trivial features distinguish M. fisheri 

 ItomM. maxima: (1) The longer tentacles. (2) The longer ventral arms. In his description of M. maxima 

 Pfeffer says regarding the arms that "4 und 2 sind wenig verschieden , " while in the present species 

 the disproportion between the arms of these pairs is conspicuous. In my first diagnosis I gave the 

 arm formula as 4, 3, 2, 1. In reality this is true of the left side only, the right arms standing 3, 4, a, 1, 

 but in both cases the difference between the third and ventral arms is so slight as scarcely to be worth 

 17311°— 14 7 



