1912.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 383 



one somewhat doubtful subspecies. But one new species (Sepia 

 formosana) is here proposed, although two others, Stoloteuthis nip- 

 ponensis and Abraliopsis sdntillans (Berry 1911, 1911a), have pre- 

 viously been described from the same material and are now more 

 fully characterized and figured. 



RELATIONSHIPS AND DISTRIBUTION. 



After the excellent discussion of the relationships of the Japanese 

 cephalopod fauna by Wulker (1910, pp. 23, 24), it would be idle to 

 reenter into the subject with much detail here. Suffice to say that 

 the close analogy there dwelt upon between many Japanese and 

 Mediterranean types is now still further heightened by the addition 

 of Thelidioteuthis alessandrinii to the list. Nevertheless, the pre- 

 dominant tone of the fauna is quite decidedly Indo-Malayan. 

 Indeed, outside of the genera Loligo and Sepia, astonishingly few 

 species are known to be exclusively Japanese, though these two 

 groups here attain such an abundant development and comprise 

 so many unique species that the gross aspect of any large collection 

 from the region is quite characteristic. The presence of the hong- 

 kongensis group of Polypi appears somewhat anomalous and may 

 indicate that these species are invaders from the Aleutian-Californian 

 fauna, where they or their near allies form one of the most striking 

 elements, a conclusion which is, however, by no means to be regarded 

 as certain. 



These points are brought out somewhat more forcibly by state- 

 ment in tabular form. 



The distribution of the fauna, according to groups, is significantly 

 shown in the following table : 



Genera. Species. Sub-species. Doubtful. 



OCTOPODA 7 20 1 ? 2 



MYOPSIDA 11 35 2 



(EGOPSIDA 11 12 



TETRABRANCHIATA 1 1 



Total 30 68 1 ? . 4 



The most striking feature is very obviously the great prepon- 

 derance of the Myopsida which comprise more species, or at least 

 as many, as all other groups combined. This again is almost en- 

 tirely due to the more abundant representation of Loligo and Sepia, 

 and is quite the reverse of the conditions prevailing in other areas 

 of the North Pacific. 



