A. E. Verrill — North American Cepkalopods. 299 



Chiroteuthis Bonplandi D'Orb. (?). 



Loligojjsis Bonplandi Verany, Acad. Turin, ser. II, vol. i, PI. 5. (Specimen without 



tentacular arms, t. D'Orb.). 

 Ohiroteuthis Bonjjlandi D'Orbigny, Ceplial. Acetab., p. 226. (Description compiled 



from Yerany). 

 Verrill, Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. viii, PL 3, figs. 1-16, 1881. 



Plate XLVII, FiauRES \-U. 



A detached tentacular arm, belonging to a species of Chiroteuthis 

 was taken by the U. S. Coast Survey steamer " Blake," in the sum- 

 mer of 1880, at station ccciii, lat. 41° 34' 30", long. 65° 54' 30", in 

 306 fathoms. 



The arm is very long and slender; the length being 780'""' (or over 

 30 inches) ; its diameter being from 1*5 to 2™™, except near the base 

 where it is 3""", and at the terminal club, which is 6""" broad, and 

 54mm long. The arm is white, with purplish sj^ecks, and is generally 

 roundish, except at the club; along the greater part of its length 

 there is a row of rather distant sessile suckers, the distance between 

 them being usually from 12-18"""; these suckers are larger than 

 those of the club and have a nearly flat upper surface and no horny 

 marginal rim. A row of small, simple, scattered pits, perhaps homo- 

 logues of these suckers, extends up the back side of the club. These 

 smooth suckers evidently serve to unite the tentacular arms together 

 when used in concert. The club is stouter than the rest of the arm 

 convex on both sides, and but little flattened ; on each side it is bor- 

 dered by a well developed, marginal membrane, supported by a series 

 of transverse, thickened, but flat, tapering, acute, muscular processes 

 with their ends projecting beyond the edge of the membrane, as digit- 

 ations ; on the distal half of the club, these are separated by spaces 

 greater than their breadth, but on the proximal portion they sub- 

 divide into two or three parts, which become crowded close together 

 showing only narrow intervals or merely a groove between them. 

 At the tip of the arm there is a thick, ovate, dark purple, spoon - 

 shaped, hollow organ, about 4"'"' long, witli its opening on the back 

 side of the arm. This so strongly resembles the spoon-shaped organ 

 of the hectocotylized arm of some Octopods, as to suggest the pos- 

 sibility of a similar use, for sexual purposes. The suckers are crowded 

 in 4 to 8 indistinct rows. Their pedicels are long and slender hav- 

 ing beyond the middle a large, dark purple, fluted, swollen portion, 

 beyond which the pedicel is more slender ; the cup of the sucker 

 is small and deep, with a very oblique, oblong-ovate, lateral openino- • 

 horny rim, not distinctly toothed (fig. \b). 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. V. 37 February 1881. 



