386 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [176] 



being three or four times as broad, and have rows of small scale-like 

 denticles around the rims. (Plate XXXIII, figs. 2a, 3a, 3b.) 



Pen small and very thin, soft, and delicate. It is angularly pointed or 

 pen-shaped anteriorly, the shaft narrowing backward; a thin lanceolate 

 expansion, or margin, extends along nearly the posterior half (fig. 2&). 



Upper jaw with a sharp, strongly incurved beak, without a notch at 

 its base. Lower jaw with the tip of the beak strongly incurved, and 

 with a broad, but prominent, rounded lobe on the middle of its cutting 

 edges (fig. 2, a, b). 



Odontophore with simple, acute-triangular median teeth ; inner later- 

 als simple, nearly of the same size and shape as the median, except at 

 base; outer laterals much longer, strongly curved forward (fig. 2c, 2d). 



Color, in life, pale and translucent, with scattered rosy chromatopho- 

 res. In the alcoholic specimens, the general color of body, head, and 

 arms is reddish, thickly spotted with rather large chromatophores, 

 which also exist on the inner surface of the arms between the suckers, 

 and to some extent on the tentacular arms and bases of the fins ; outer 

 part of fins translucent white ; anterior edge of mantle with a white 

 border. 



Length of body 25 to 30 millimeters. 



Twenty-seven specimens of this species were obtained, by Mr. A. 

 Agassiz, on the " Blake," in 1880, from six stations, ranging in depth 

 from 71 to 233 fathoms. It was taken, later in the season, in great 

 abundance, by the U. S. Fish Commission, off Newport, B. L, in 65 to 

 252 fathoms ; and off the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, in November, by 

 Lieut. Z. L. Tanner, on the " Fish Hawk," in 18 to 57 fathoms. In 1881 

 it has also been dredged, at several stations, off Martha's Vineyard, in 

 45 to 182 fathoms. 



It is easily distinguished from the species of Rossia by the large size 

 of the suckers along the middle of the lateral arms ; by the inequality 

 of the suckers on the tentacular clubs ; and by the peculiar hectocoty- 

 lized condition of the left dorsal arm of the male. The existence of large 

 chromatophores on the inner surfaces of the arms, between the suckers, 

 is also a good diagnostic mark, by which to distinguish it from all our 

 species of Eossia, which have the corresponding parts whitish, or with 

 few and very small chromatophores. 



The eggs of this species, containing, in several instances, embryos 

 so far developed as to permit accurate identification, have been taken 

 in August and September, by the U. S. Fish Commission, at many of 

 the stations where the adults were obtained. They were especially nu- 

 merous at stations 865-867, 872-874, in 1880 j and at stations 922, 940, 

 949, in 1881. These eggs are attached to the surface of ascidians, worm- 

 tubes, skate's eggs, dead shells, etc., singly, but placed side by side, in 

 smaller or larger groups. They are about 3 mm in diameter, pearly white, 

 and nearly round, but are slightly flattened where attached, and have a 

 small, conical eminence, on the upper side. 



