374 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [164] 



Sepioteuthis sepioidea D'Orb. — (Continued.) 



Gray, Catal. Moll. Brit. Mus., i,p»81, 1849. 



Tryon, Man. Conch., i, p. 15*3, pi. 63, fig. 216. (Description copied from Gray; 



figure from D'Orbigny. ) 

 Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad., v, p. 345, 1881. 



Body oblong, stout, depressed, tapering but little, obtuse posteriorly. 

 The fins, together, have a long, rhomboidal form, broadest in the middle 

 and rounded posteriorly ; they commence a short distance (5 to 10 mm ) 

 from the anterior border of the mantle and extend to the posterior end ; 

 a narrow crest-like extension of the fins, around the posterior end of the 

 body, unites them together. Buccal membrane "with seven long, acute 

 lobes, without suckers. Sessile arms rather slender, the third pair 

 much the largest ; the first very short and compressed. Suckers with 

 broad rims, having long, slender teeth on the outer side and smaller 

 ones on the inner. Tentacular club with four rows of large suckers, 

 about twelve in each ; the central ones have the rims strongly and reg- 

 ularly denticulated with slender, acute teeth ; the marginal ones are 

 but little smaller, with similar teeth on the outer edge. The pen is 

 broad, lance-shaped ; the blade is wide and thin, without any marginal 

 thickenings. 



The male has the left ventral arm hectocotylized by the enlargement 

 and elongation of the stems of the suckers, in both rows, on the distal 

 part of the arms, as in Loligo; but in this species the cups are entirely 

 obsolete on many of the stems in both rows, the stems becoming long, 

 conical, with acute tips. The large spermatophore-sac is filled with 

 spermatophores in some of the specimens examined by me, and there is 

 a saccular enlargement of the efferent sperm-duct or "penis" near the 

 terminal orifice. These specimens have the larger part of the inner sur- 

 face of the siphon covered with a soft, whitish, glandular-looking mem- 

 brane, which is thrown into longitudinal, convoluted folds. 



A large female, taken in July, has a short, thick ovary, and is distended 

 by comparatively few very large eggs (5-6 mm in diameter), which have 

 a strongly reticulated surface before reaching the glandular part of the 

 duct. The oviduct is very large, with large glands, and its external 

 orifice is large and surrounded by a broad and very complicated border. 

 The accessory nidamental glands are also very large. The short ovary 

 is restricted to the posterior part of the body. This specimen had 

 spermatophores attached to and around a large elevated area on the 

 lower part of the inner surface of the inner buccal membrane. 



This species is widely distributed along the warmer parts of the 

 American coast and throughout the West Indies, extending as far 

 north, at least, as Bermuda, from whence I have a specimen collected 

 by Mr. G. Brown Goode. It may, therefore, occasionally occur as far 

 north as Cape Hatteras, but I have seen no specimens from our coast, 

 north of Florida. 



From the Museum of Comparative Zoology I have received two speci- 

 mens from Cuba (Professor Poey); two large males, with spermato- 



