. 
IX. On the Anatomy of the Sepiola vulgaris, Leach, and Account of a New Species 
(Sep. stenodactyla, Grant,) from the Coast of Mauritius. By Rosurr E. Grant, M.D., 
F.R.S. Ed., L.S., G.S., Z.8., §c. Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology in 
the University of London. 
Communicated March 26, and July 23, 1833. 
THE Sepiola vulgaris is one of the most minute and least known of the Naked Cepha- 
lopods inhabiting the shores of Europe. It can scarcely, however, be considered as a 
rare animal; it is known to occur in the Mediterranean, and other parts of the Euro- 
pean coasts, and has been met with as far north as Davis’s Straits. I have met with it 
in the Frith of Forth, and have often obtained recent specimens of it in London, brought 
up with fishes from our eastern coasts. The specimens from the British coasts generally 
measure from an inch and a half to two inches in length from the round base of the 
body to the extreme points of the arms, the two tentacula being commonly as long as 
the total length of the rest of the animal. This interesting little Cephalopod belongs to 
that division of the class termed Decapoda, or Decacera, from the species possessing, 
besides the usual eight arms around the head, two long pedunculated tentacula, which 
extend from within the brachial disk. Like the animals of the genus Loligo, this De- 
capod has a thin flexible transparent dorsal Jamina and fin-like organs, extending from 
the sides of the body to assist in progressive motion ; and it has generally been ranked 
as a species of Loligo by Cuvier, Lamarck, M. Blainville, and other systematic writers. 
The shortness of its body and its rounded termination form, however, so remarkable an 
exception to the usual form in the genus Loligo, that Dr. Leach was induced to esta- 
blish a new genus for this peculiar type, retaining for it the original specific name of 
Sepiola, which had been given to it from its external affinities to Sepia. This peculiar 
form had been hitherto known only as belonging to the single species of the European 
coasts, the Sepiola vulgaris. 
It might have been expected that an external form differing so remarkably from that 
of the other Loligines, would have earlier excited the curiosity of the anatomist to ex- 
amine, in an animal so common on the coasts of Europe, whether or not there were 
corresponding peculiarities of internal structure, particularly as the animals of this class 
are known to present many interesting peculiarities in the different species. The small 
size of the Sepiola appears, however, to have hitherto concealed it from anatomical ex- 
amination, as no observations have been recorded, so far as I know, regarding any of 
its internal organs. This little Cephalopod is remarkable for the great size of its head 
and arms compared with the smallness and shortness of the body ; its lateral fins are 
