A. K Verrill — North American Cephalopods. 375 



at the surface, especially in summer, is sufficient to kill many of the 

 deep-water animals, while others that live for a short time never 

 recover entirely. 



This species resembles 0. lentus, but has a much larger and rough 

 or lacerate cirrus above the eye. The modified arm of the male is also 

 diiferent. It is somewhat related to 0. Gnenlandictis Dewh., but 

 the male of the latter has the third right arm much longer, with the 

 modified spoon-shaped portion relatively very much smaller and quite 

 different in form, and with more numerous folds, and the basal part 

 bears 41 to 48 suckers; the other arms also have more numerous 

 suckers ; the web is less extensive and the body is more elongated and 

 appears to be smooth and destitute of the large cirrus above the eyes, 

 if correctly figured. 



O. obesus has the spoon-shaped part of the third right arm rela- 

 tively larger, and several of the basal suckers of the other arms are 

 in a single row. It also difters in other respects. 



Octopus lentus VerriU. 



Yerrill Amer. Jour. Sci., xix, p. 138, Feb., 1880: p. 294, April, 1880; BuUetin 

 Mus. Comp. Zool., viii, p. 108, pi. 4, fig. 2, $ . 



Plate XXXV, figures 1 , 2, s . Plate LI, figure 2, 3 . 

 Female (type specimen) : Body broad, stout, depressed, slightly 

 emarginate at the posterior end, rather soft to the touch, and in some 

 specimens gelatinous in appearance ; a thin, soft, free, marginal mem- 

 brane runs along the sides and around the posterior end of the body, 

 becoming widest (about 12""") posteriorly; in some of the more 

 strongly contracted specimens this membrane is but little apparent. 

 Head large, broad, depressed, with the eyes large and far apart ; 

 above each eye there is a small, simple, conical, acute, contractile 

 cirrus. A well-developed thin web connects the arms, considerably 

 above their bases, and then runs up to the tips as broad margins to 

 each arm. 



The arms are rather large, stout at base, with a broad inner face, 

 and taper gradually to veiy slender tips; the first and third pairs are 

 nearly equal in length ; those of the second are also about equal in 

 length to the fourth pair, but are somewhat shorter than the first and 

 third. The arras on the right side, in the type-specimen, were all 

 somewhat longer than the corresponding ones on the left. The arms, 

 measuring from the beak, are more than twice as long as the body. 

 The suckers are arranged in two distinct rows, to the base. 



Color of head and body above, and of body beneath, deep reddish 



