[181] CEPHALOPODS OF NORTHEASTERN COAST OF AMERICA. 
groove along its edge is fringed ; near the end, the groove connects with 
a rounded, obliquely placed, broad, flat or slightly concave lateral lobe, 
with transverse wrinkles or plications on the inner surface; the termi- 
nal portion of the arm is a long-fusiform, smooth process. 
The permanent attachment of the mantle to the siphon, by means of 
commissures, is a very distinctive character. 
Alloposus mollis Verrill.— Webbed devil-fish. 
Alloposus mollis Verrill, Amer. Journ. Sci., xx, p. 394, Nov., 1880; Proc. Nat. 
Mus., iii, p. 363, 1880; Trans. Conn. Acad., v, p. 366, pl. 50, figs. 1, la, 2, 2a; 
pl. 51, figs. 3, 4; Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zool., viii, p. 113, pl. 4, figs. 3, 4; pl. 
8, figs. 1-2a, March, 1881. 
Octopus? , sp., Verrill, Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zool., p. 109, pl. 4, fig. 3, 1881. 
Plate XXXIX, figs. 1, la, 2, 2a. Plate XLII, fig. 7. Plate XLIV, fig. 1. 
Body stout, ovate, very soft and flabby. Head large, as broad as the 
body; eyes large, their openings small. Arms rather stout, not very 
long, webbed nearly to the ends, the dorsal much longer than the ven- 
tral arms; suckers large, simple, in two alternating rows. Color deep 
purplish brown, with a more or less distinctly spotted appearance. To- 
tallength of a medium-sized specimen, 160"™; of body, to base of arms, 
90™™; of mantle, beneath, 50™™; of dorsal arms, 70™"; breadth of body, 
70™™, Other specimens are very much larger. 
This season two very large females, nearly equal in size, were taken: 
one at station 937, in 506 fathoms; the other at 994, in 368 fathoms. 
The former weighed over 20 pounds. Length, while fresh, posterior 
end of body to tip of 1st pair of arms, 787™™ (31 inches); of 2d pair, 
812™™ (32 inches); of 3d pair, 711™™ (28 inches); of 4th pair, 711™™ (28 
inches); length of mantle, beneath, 178™™ (7 inches); beak to end of 4th 
pair of arms, 559™™ (22 inches); breadth of body, 216™™ (8.5 inches); 
breadth of head, 280™™ (11 inches); diameter of eye, 64™™ (2.6 inches) ; 
of largest suckers, 10™™ (.38 of an inch). The body was remarkably soft 
and gelatinous in appearance, and to the touch, while living. In fact 
jt did not have sufficient firmness to retain its natural shape when out 
of water, and when placed in a large pan-it accommodated itself to the 
shape of the vessel, like a mass of stiff jelly. Color, in life, pale bluish 
white specked with rusty orange-brown chromatophores; inner surface 
of arms dark purplish brown, suckers white. 
One mature, detached, hectocotylized arm (Plate XLIV, fig. 1) was 
taken November 16. This has two rows of large, six- or seven-lobed 
suckers, a very long fringe, composed of thin, flat, lacerate processes, 
along each side; the terminal process is fusiform, acute, and loosely 
covered with a thin, translucent membrane, beneath which the inner 
surface, bearing chromatophores, can be seen. Length of this arm, 
200™™; its breadth, 20™™; length of terminal process, 30™™; its diameter, 
7™™; diameter of largest suckers, 6™™; length of fringe, 15™™. 
Two detached and somewhat mutilated arms, with portions of a third 
arm and of the basal web, of a large Octopod, probably of this species, 
