[193] CEPHALOPODS OF NORTHEASTERN COAST OF AMERICA 
The first specimen of this species was taken off Nova Scotia, near Le 
Have Bank, in 120 fatlioms, by Capt. Samuel Peeples and crew of the 
schooner “ M. II. Perkins”, and presented to tlieU. S. Fish Commission. 
A few others have since been brought in by the Gloucester fishermen 
from the bank fisheries. Mr. A. Agassiz dredged it on the Blake in 
1880, as far south as N. lat. 33° 42' 15". It ranges in depth from 120 to 
G03 fathoms. 
In the soft consistency of the flesh and skin this species resembles 
Octopus obesus. It differs in the shorter and posteriorly emarginate 
body, and especially in the arrangement of the suckers, which in that 
species are in a single series toward the bases of the arms. 
Octopus lentus.—Specimens examined. 
Locality. 
Fatli. 
When 
coll’d. 
N. lat. 33° 42' 15", W. long., 76° 0' 50" (Blake) . * . 
464 
1880 
N. lat. 34° 39' 40"i W. long.j 75° 14' 40" (Blake). 
603 
1880 
120 
1879 
150 
1880 
St. Peter’s Bank (sch. Augusta H. Johnson).,. 
200 
1880 
1880 
1880 - 
No. 
7 
10 
553 
718 
737 
807 
808 
Stat. 
Specimens. 
No. and sex. 
326 
329 
l<f 1? 
1 d (fig’d). 
1 ? (fig’d). 
sni. $ 
i l. ? 
i ? 
l 9 
Octopus obesus Verrill.—(Stout devil-fish.) 
Octopus obesus Verrill, American Journ. Sci., vol. xix, p. 137, Feb., 1&80 ; vol. 
xix, p. 294, Apr., 1880; Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. v, p. 379, pi. 36, figs. 3,4,1881. 
Plate XLII, figures 6,6a. 
Male: Remarkable for the great size of the spoon-shaped organ of 
the right arm of the third pair. Body relatively large, stout, oblong- 
oval, somewhat flattened above, obtusely rounded at the posterior end; 
soft and somewhat gelatinous in texture; skin, so far as preserved, 
smooth, soft. No cirrus exists above the eye, in our specimen, but the 
skin is not so well preserved in that region as to render it certain that 
a small one may not have existed, in life. Eyes very large. 
Arms moderately long, the dorsal longest, others successively shorter; 
all are somewhat laterally compressed at base, tapering to long, slender 
tips; a moderately developed web connects them together at base. The 
hectocotylized arm (third of right side), bears at the end a very large, 
broad and thick, but not very deep, spoon-like organ, occupying more 
than a third of the total length of the arm; its inner surface is crossed 
by eleven oblique, thick, rounded folds or ribs, ten of them converging 
backward to the median line and at their outer ends joining a marginal 
thickening; the distal end terminates in a median pointed lobe, with a 
thin, rounded, lateral lobe each side of it; the proximal border is 
formed by the last (eleventh) fold, which is V-shaped, with the apex 
pointing distally. A broad, thin, marginal membrane extends along the 
