A. E. Verrill — North American Cephalopods. 8G3 



of which usually has a dark-colored spot in the center ; on the sides, 

 tliese tubercles are less prominent and less regulai", gradually fading 

 out above. The head is decidedly smaller than the body, and smooth 

 botli above and below. The eyes are prominent, but the external 

 opening is small, round, with simple border. The gill-opening is 

 large, and extends upward on the sides of the neck to the level 

 of the upper sides of the eye-balls. The siphon-tube is completely 

 united by its basal portion to the lower side of the head ; its free por- 

 tion is large and elongated, standing out well forward, between the 

 bases of the ventral arms. There is a conspicuous aquiferous pore at 

 each side of the base of the siphon, just back of the ventral arms. 

 The arms are stout, not very long ; the inner surface is broad, w^ith 

 two rows of rather widely separated suckers, which run along the 

 margins of the arms; the suckers are rather large, and considerably 

 raised on stout bases ; the first suckers form a regular circle around 

 the mouth ; two or three basal suckers are nearly in a single row. 

 The suckers are cup-shaped, with a deep central pit, around which 

 there are strong radial ridges; toward the base of the arms the soft 

 swollen rims of the suckers are wrinkled and lobulated ; farther out 

 they are smooth and even. The beak is black, with sharp tips. 

 It is surrounded by a thick, wrinkled buccal membrane. 



The arms are slightly united at their bases by a narrow web, which 

 also runs along each of the outer angles of the six upper arms, form- 

 ing more or less wide marginal membranes, according to the state 

 of extension, and by their contractions causing the arms to curl in 

 various directions ; one of these membranes frequently disappears, 

 if the other be so stretched as to become wide, when the arm is 

 strongly recurved ; on the ventral arms the upper membrane becomes 

 strongly developed, while the lower one is abortive. There is also a 

 slio'ht marofinal membrane along the inner margins, running between 

 the suckers and connecting them together. The dorsal and ventral 

 arms are considerably larger and longer than the two lateral pairs, 

 the dorsal ones are the stoiitest. The two lateral pairs are about 

 equal in size and length. On the dorsal arms there are about 90 

 suckers ; on the lateral ones about SO, that can be counted with the 

 naked eye. The tips are very slender and covered with very minute 

 suckers. 



Color of the body and head, above, and of the upper arms, dec]) 

 l)rownish purple ; lower surfaces of body and head, with the siphon 

 and ventral arms, pale yelloAvish. 



The total length of our specimen is 20:V""' ; of mantle, 51; circnm- 



Tkans. (;onx. Acad., Vol. V. 43 July, 1881. 



