29G REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [8G] 



it begins to expand into the broader face of the club; along the sides of 

 the club the marginal membranes become much wider, rising to a level 

 with the suckers, and have transverse muscular ridges opposite the 

 marginal suckers, producing scalloped edges. 



In the male of our species one of the ventral arms (Plate XVIII. figs. 

 3, 3 a) is strongly hectocotylizetl, somewhat as in Loligo. But in this 

 species it is the right arm about as often as the left that is modified. 

 Toward the tip of the arm, for some distance, the pedicels of the suckers, 

 especially of the outer row, become shorter, and the bases of the sucker- 

 stalks become larger, broader, and transversely compressed, while the 

 cups of the suckers themselves decrease rapidly, till they become very 

 minute, and on a number of the most flattened and largest stalks they 

 are entirely abortive, in the case of the medium-sized males, but very 

 close to the tip they may again become normal. The inner row of suck- 

 ers is more or less modified in a similar manner; but fewer of the sucker- 

 stalks are affected, and these are usually not so extensively altered, 

 though in the larger males many of them are commonly destitute of cups 

 and have the same flattened form as those of the outer row, with which 

 they arc usually united along the median line of the arm, forming a 

 zigzag ridge. In a very large male (J), with the right ventral arm modi- 

 tied, the alteration of the sucker-stalks becomes obvious at about the 

 45th sucker, and there are, beyond this, about 80 modified suckers, 

 extending to the very tip ; of these, about 30, in the outer row, are repre- 

 sented only by the fiat, lamelliform bases of the sucker-stalks, without 

 cups; on the inner row the small cups extend for about ten suckers 

 farther than on the outer. The lamelliform processes are united medi- 

 ally in a zigzag line along the entire tip. The modified partis about an 

 inch in length. This arm is as long as its mate (though in other speci- 

 mens it is often shorter); but it is broader, stouter, and more blunt at 

 tip, both the inner face and lateral membrane being increased in width. 

 The younger males, 4 to 6 inches long, have the corresponding suckers 

 less extensively modified, and the cups, though very much reduced in 

 size, are usually present on all or nearly all the stalks. 



The portion of the tentacles which bears suckers is always less than 

 half the whole length. The relative size of the suckers varies greatly 

 in both sexes, perhaps in connection with a renewal of their horny 

 rings. But in some extreme cases the loss of the sucker, or of the en- 

 tire club, and the regeneration of a new one will best explain this varia- 

 tion. 



The club is long and moderately broad, gradually widening from the 

 peduncular part of the arm, and tapering at the end to a rather blunt, 

 flattened, and curved tip, which is strongly carinated on the outer side 

 by a thin lamina. The suckers commence a short distance in advance 

 of the expansion of the club. They are at first small, deep cup-shaped, 

 and somewhat scattered, in two alternate rows, but all of these small 

 ones have oblique rims, strongly denticulated on the outer margin with 



