REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [196] 
FAMILY CIRRHOTEUTHIDA Keff. 
Kefferstein, in Bronn, Thier-Reich, iii, p. 1448, 1866. 
Body somewhat elongated, furnished with a short, thick tapering fin 
on each side, supported by an internal transverse cartilage. Mantle ex- 
tensively united to the head. Arms united nearly to the tips by a broad 
umbrella-shaped membrane or web. Suckers in a single row, alternating 
with slender cirri. 
STAUROTEUTHIS Verrill. 
Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xviii, p. 468, Dec., 1879; Trans. Conn. Acad., v, p. 382, 1881. 
Allied to Cirrhoteuthis, but with the mantle united to the head all 
around, and to the dorsal side of the slender siphon, which it surrounds 
like a close collar, leaving only a very narrow opening around the base 
of the siphon, laterally and ventrally. Fins long, triangular, in advance 
of the middle of the body. Dorsal cartilage forming a median angle, 
directed backward. Body flattened, soft, bordered by a membrane. 
Eyes covered by the integument. Web not reaching the tips of the 
arms, the edge concave in the intervals. Suckers in one row, with a 
pair of slender cirri, alternating with them, along mostof the arm. Cirri 
absent between the basal and terminal suckers. 
Stauroteuthis syrtensis Verrill.—(Finned devil-fish.) 
Verrill, Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xviii, p. 468, Dec., 1879; xix, p. 294, pl. 16, Apr., 
1880; Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. v, p. 382, pl. 32, figs. 1-5, 1881. 
Plate XXXVIII, figures 1-5. 
Female: Head broad, depressed, not very distinct fromthe body. Eyes 
large. Body elongated, flattened, soft or gelatinous, widest in the middle, 
narrowed but little forward, but décidedly tapered, back of the fins, to the 
flat, obtuse, or subtruncate tail. The sides of the head and of the body, 
forward of the fins, are bordered by a thin soft membrane, about 12™™ 
wide. The fins are elongated, sub-triangular, obtusely pointed, placed 
in advance of the middle of the body, supported by internal cartilages 
which unite with a transverse dorsal y-shaped one, situated behind the 
fins. Siphon elongated, about 12™™ long, slender, round, with a small 
terminal opening. Mantle-edge so contracted and thickened around the 
base of the siphon as to show only a very small opening, and united to 
it in the middle line anteriorly or dorsally. Eyes large, distinctly visi- 
ble through the integument. 
Arms long, slender, sub-equal, each united to the great web by a 
broad membrane developed on its outer side, widest (about 38™™ or 1.5 
inches) in the middle of the arm, while the edge of the web unites di- 
rectly to the sides of the arms and, as a border, runs along the free por- 
tion toward the very slender tip. This arrangement gives a swollen or 
campanulate form to the extended web. Edges of the web incurved 
between the arms, widest between the two lateral pairs of arms. The 
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