42 BEXl A I. ORGANS. 



The buccal |>;irts(>l':i female of Nr///r/ I uhiT<-ul(itu of the Cape, 

 present the following peculiarity: the male li:is fixed tin- whole 

 mass of the spcrmatophoivs on t he I'.r/cr/ttil surface of 1 he bnccal 

 membrane a tiling which iu- has never seen in any other Sepia, 

 although he has sometimes observed that a lew gpermatophores 

 had separated iVoni the others and fixed on the external surface. 

 nay, oven near the Icise of the arms STKKNS ri;i i 1 . ( '<>m/>f<\-< 

 /.VW^.s-, 561, Is7.">; .!/'/>. Mtnj. A'. ///*/., 1 ser., xvii. <>:;, 1x71;. 



l>r. Bert, in the course of his researches upon the physiol 

 of Sepia, remarked two individuals in coit u. and upon >eparat ini; 1 

 them discovered that the hectocotylized arm of the male wa> 

 thrust within its own mantle opening, instead of. as he expected. 

 that of the female. Is it not possible that in some genera at 

 least, of the decapods, the want, of a covered pas^auv through 

 the hectocotylized arm for the transmission of the spermato- 

 phoro. is remedied by the mechanical action of the arm itself 

 in transmitting them from the mantle pouch and fixing them to 

 the interior face of the buccal membrane of the- female, where 

 they may remain until by their Irorsting (perhaps assisted by 

 compression of the membrane) the innumerable sperms are dif- 

 fused through the water, and thus ^ain access to and fertili/e 1 he 

 ova. I put this forward with some hesitation, as a theory which 

 may deri\e some support by the consideration of the diti'ereiice 

 in habit between the swimming and creeping species, which in t he 

 former may sometimes render the sexual embrace more difficult 

 than in the latter. 



Lafont. who has studied at length the fecundation of various 

 >pecies of cephalopoda in the aquarium of Arcachon. had (in 

 1SC.S) in only a single instance noticed the spermatophores placed 

 externally upon the female, and that wa> nude!' ext raordina ry 

 circumstances ; the individuals belonged to different species of 

 Sepia, and the opposition of the female to the sexual union was 

 manifest, and resulted in the inlliction of injuries from which 

 both died. He thinks that the mode of feeimdat ion known as 

 hectocotylization in Ar^onanta and Tremoct opus, is not very 

 positively practised in Sepia and ( hmnast replies, nor very pn>b- 

 ,'ibly in LoligO and Octopus; and he concludes thai it is certain 

 (from his observation) that in Hie -.MMIU^ Sepia the bundles of 



