110 MR. OWEN’S DESCRIPTIONS OF 
their breadth and length are the same ; their superior contour is an obtuse angle. Their 
inferior margin is rounded in the Cranchia cardioptera of Péron, to which the species 
under consideration has a superficial resemblance ; the terminal fins have a semicircular 
contour, and their origins are widely separated anteriorly ; they also extend beyond the 
termination of the trunk: the trunk is broader in proportion to the head, and does not 
diminish gradually to a point, but is rounded off at the posterior extremity. The Cran- 
chia minima of Férussac may be at once distinguished from Loligo laticeps by the ex- 
tension of the trunk beyond the small rounded fins, which gives a trilobate contour to 
the termination of the body. 
The gladius is proportionally as well developed in this small species as in the larger 
Calamaries: it commences by a firm blunt anterior extremity, about one third from 
which the sides begin to dilate until within the same distance from the posterior end, 
towards which they converge to a point: the expanded part of the gladius is very con- 
cave towards the viscera. 
The mandibles have the usual form, the lower one overlapping the upper; the dark- 
coloured exposed part is of greater extent than in the Cranchia. They are surrounded 
by a tumid inner circular lip, minutely plicated transversely ; the external membranous 
lip presents a free and slightly indented internal margin ; its external margin is produced 
into eight pointed processes, which, as in Loligo todarus and Lol. Piscatorum, are tied 
down to the inner surface of the arms, and are without rudimental suckers. 
Of the arms, the 3rd pair are the longest ; the 2nd, 4th, and Ist pair successively di- 
minish in length, but in a very slight degree. The suckers are arranged at the margins 
of the inner surface in a double alternate series, attached by moderately long and slender 
peduncles, having a lateral insertion ; the diameter of the suckers is half that of the part 
of the arm which supports them. In the tentacles the suckers are confined to the dilated 
extremities, as in Loligo vulgaris : they are here arranged in three or four irregular series, 
and present the following peculiarity :—the peduncles, which are at first filiform, dilate 
at their commencement, before they are attached to the sucker, like the calyx of a 
flower ; and the cavity of the sucker is continued in this dilated part (Pl. XXI. figg. 8, 10.) 
With respect to the anatomy of this minute species, we cannot be surprised that it is 
in every respect as complex as that of the largest of the genus of which it presents all 
the external character : just as in the highest class of animals, the harvest-mouse exem- 
plifies as perfectly the mammiferous type of organization as the elephant. The gills in 
Loligo laticeps are attached through their entire length by a membrane to the sides of 
the mantle ; the branchial hearts, to which the above connecting membranes have a re- 
lation of coexistence, are provided with small fleshy appendages, as in other Calamaries, 
and indeed as in all the Dibranchiata which have the funnel articulated with the 
mantle. 
The divisions of the vena cava, and the extremities of the visceral veins, have thick- 
ened spongy coats, with a tolerably smooth and equal external surface : the systemic 
OO, — 
