Cuttles 



38S 



covered by rows of stalked or sessile suckers of 

 such great clinging power that the arm itself may 

 be torn to pieces before the suckers will leave the 

 surface to which they have been attached. In the 

 sub - order Octopoda these 

 suckers are entirely fleshy, 

 but in the Decapoda they 

 have a horny rim — some- 

 times toothed. The suckers 

 are disks depressed in the 

 middle, which can be worked 

 piston-fashion. When the 

 margins have been applied 

 to any surface the centre is 

 withdrawn, and a vacuum 

 created which ensures a 

 powerful attachment. One 

 of the arms in the male — 

 the sexes being separate in 

 the Cuttles — undergoes a 

 change, and is charged with 

 spermatozoa, but it is never detached as in some 

 exotic species. 



The heart consists of two auricles connecting with 

 the two branchiae which give the name to this order. 

 After the oxygenated blood has been received from 

 these organs into the single ventricle it is distributed 

 fore and aft to the creature's body by the two aort^ 

 and the connected arteries, returning to the branchi^ 

 later by veins. The so-called "funnel" comes out 

 on the lower surface forward. It is the general 

 excretory organ, and connected with it is the ink- 

 sac. This is divided into two portions, the ink-gland 



Suckers of Cuttle 



