384 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [174] 



rounded by small scales, in many rows; the marginal scales are larger, 

 forming a circle of denticles. 



Color purplish brown with rather large chocolate-brown chromato- 

 phores; outer portion of fins pale, thin and translucent 5 edge of mantle, 

 siphon, under side of head and arms, and greater part of tentacular 

 arms whitish, with only minute chromatophores. 



Measurements of Rossia megaptera. 



Length, end of body to dorsal edge of mantle, exclusive of membrane. 



Length, end of body to ventral edgo of mantle 



Length, end of body to base of dorsal arms 



Length, end of body to tip of dorsal aims 



Length, end of body to tip of second pair 



Length, end of body to tip of third pair 



Length, end of body to tip of fourth pair 



Length, end of body to tip of tentacular arms 



Breadth of body and tins together 



Br< adth of body between bases of fins 



Breadth of body, beneath tins, exclusive of membrane 



Breadth of head across eyes 



Breadth of fins antero posteriorly 



Length of fins, base to edge (outer) 



Diameter of eyes 



Diameter of large suckers of lateral arms 



Diameter of large suckers of club - 



Breadth of club 



Length of club 



Southern coast of Newfoundland, in 150 fathoms, Capt. K. Markuson 

 and crew, schooner " Notice," June, 1880. 



This species is remarkable for the great size of the fins and eyes, and 

 for the length of the tentacular arms. It appears to be a species specially 

 adapted for inhabiting greater depths than the species hitherto discov- 

 ered. It has the same soft, flabby integument observed in Octopus lentus 

 and Stauroteulhis syrtensis, found at similar depths. But the looseness 

 of the skin may be due in part to ttie condition of the specimen when 

 preserved. The tentacular suckers are unusually small. 



HETEROTEUTHIS Gray (revised.) 

 Heteroteulhis (sub-genus) Gray, Catal. Moll. Brit. Mus., i, p. 90, 1849. 

 Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad., v, p. 357, June, 1881. 



The body is short, thick, rounded posteriorly. Fins large and lateral. 

 Head and eyes large. The anterior border of the mantle-edge is free, 

 dorsally. Pen shorter than the mantle, narrow anteriorly; posterior 

 blade small, slightly expanded laterally. Club of the tentacular arms 

 well developed, with numerous suckers, in many rows, those in the upper 

 marginal rows decidedly larger than the rest; the edge of the aperture 

 is denticulated by small acute scales. Middle suckers of the lateral and 

 ventral arms distinctly larger in the female; in the male, abruptly very 

 much larger than the others. In the male, the left dorsal arm is hecto- 

 cotylized by having much smaller and more numerous suckers, arranged 

 in four rows, and by the development of a marginal membrane. 



