[119] CEPHALOPODS OF NORTHEASTERN COAST OF AMERICA. 329 



Chiroteuthis Bonplandi D'Orb. (?). 



Loligopsis Bonplandi Verany, Acad. Turin, ser. ii, vol. i, pi. 5 (specimen with- 

 out tentacular arms, t. D'Orb.). 



Chiroteuthis Bonplandi D'Orbigny, C6phai. Ac6tab., p. 226 (description com- 

 piled from Verany). 

 Verrill, Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. viii, p. 102, pi. 3, figs. 1-1 b, 1881 ; 

 Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. v, p. 299, pi. 47, figs. 1-1 b. 



Plate XXXII, figures 1-1 c. 



A detached tentacular arm belonging to a species of Chiroteuthis was 

 taken by the United States 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 1 being 780 mm (or over 30 

 inches), its diameter being from 1.5 mm to 2 mm , except near the base, where 

 it is 3 mm , and at the terminal club, which is'6 mm broad and 54 mm long. 

 The arm is white, with purplish specks, and is generally roundish, ex- 

 cept 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 ram to 18 mm ; these suckers are larger than those of the club, and 

 have a nearly flat upper surface and no horny marginal rim is preserved. 

 A row of small, simple, scattered pits, perhaps homologues of these 

 suckers, extends up the back side of the club. These smooth suckers evi- 

 dently serve to unite the tentacular arms together when used in concert. 

 The club is much stouter than the rest of the arm, convex on both sides, 

 and but little flattened; on each side it is bordered by a well-developed 

 scalloped marginal membrane, supported by a series of transverse, thick- 

 ened, but flat, tapering, acute, muscular processes, with their ends pro- 

 longed beyond the edge of the intermediate membrane, producing a 

 deeply-scalloped border; on the distal half of the club these muscular 

 supports are separated by spaces greater than their breadth, but on the 

 proximal portion they subdivide 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 pur- 

 ple, spoon-shaped, hollow organ, about 4 mm long, with 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 possibil- 

 ity of a similar use for sexual purposes. The suckers are crowded in 

 four or more indistinct rows. Their pedicels are long and slender, hav- 

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

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

 is small and lateral, with a very oblique, oblong, horny rim, which is not 

 distinctly toothed (fig. 1 b) ; but its extreme outer edge is sometimes 

 slightly beaked and much thickened. 



The fleshy border of the suckers is covered with small angular and 

 irregular scales (fig. 1 c) ; its edge is tinged with purple. 



This tentacular arm is referred to G. Bonplandi only provisionally, for 



