THE STRUCTURE AND EJACULATION OF THE SPERMATO- 
PHORES OF OCTOPUS AMERICANA. 
By Girman A. Drew. 
It was my privilege to spend several weeks in February and March 
1912 at Montego Bay, Jamaica, and to enjoy the privileges of the 
Carnegie Marine Biological Laboratory established there that year. 
For several years I had been working at problems relating to the 
spermatophores of the squid and this gave me an opportunity to study 
the spermatophores of an octopod. I regret the delay in publishing 
the results, but the preserved material has kept in very good condi- 
tion. Advantage was taken of a sojourn of several weeks at Tucson 
to complete the observations and drawings, and I greatly appreciate 
the courtesies extended to me by the staff of the Biological Department 
of the University of Arizona during that period. 
Octopus is quite abundant in the waters near Montego Bay and 
as the animals are used as food they are collected by the fishermen 
and taken to the markets, where they are sold under the name of 
“‘sea-cats.”? Most of the material used was purchased directly from 
the fishermen and many of the specimens were alive and vigorous 
when received. 
Fishermen frequently get these animals in their baited fish-traps, 
which somewhat resemble the lobster pots used in northern regions, 
and they sometimes drag them from crevices in the rock with sharp 
hooked wires. Immediately upon catching a specimen it is the usual 
practice to “turn the cap” to keep it quiet. This consists in catching 
hold of the edge of the mantle near the funnel and forcibly turning it 
wrong side out. In doing this the connections of the mantle are torn 
and the viscera are disarranged and usually mutilated. While this 
serves to “keep the animals quiet” it is not a desirable method for one 
who wants to study them. By increasing the price paid for unmu- 
tilated material it soon became possible to get all that were needed, 
so other methods of collecting did not have to be devised. 
The spermatophores of these animals are very much larger and not 
so turgid as those of the squid. They are stored in a spindle-shaped 
spermatophoric sac that lies along one margin of the spermatophoric 
organ. Part of the spermatophoric sac extends between the sper- 
mataphoric organ and the almost globular testis. The testis is 
inclosed in a membranous capsule and this, together with the vas 
deferens, spermatophoric organ, and spermatophoric sac, is inclosed 
in another membranous capsule that adheres to the capsule of the 
testis but evidently has no communication with it. Through this 
outer capsule the sexual duct or penis protrudes a short distance. 
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