376 A. E. Verrill — North American Cephalopods. 



brown, closely sj^ecked with darker brown, and with many small 

 roundish spots of whitish on the body and arms. 



Length of the type-specimen ( $ ) from the beak to the end of the 

 body, not including the marginal web, 60""" ; breadth of web, 22 ; 

 total length, 194; breadth of body, 40; breadth of head, across eyes, 

 32; of eye-openings, 10; of eye-balls, 17; length of mantle, beneath, 

 38; length of arms of first pair, 112 and 105; of second pair, 103 and 

 96; of third pair, 112 and 106; of fourth pair 94 and 97; breadth of 

 those of the three upjier pairs, 8 ; of the ventral pair, 7""". 



Male : Body depressed, rounded posteriorly, with only a trace of the 

 lateral and posterior fold ; surface soft and nearly smooth, but show- 

 ing a small number of minute white papillae sparsely scattered over the 

 dorsal surface. Cirrus above the eye small and simple, usually con- 

 tracted into a small, wart-like papilla. Head broad and flattened ; 

 eyes large. Arras rather long and slender, with slender tapering tips, 

 their bases united by a rather wide web. Suckers small, very prom- 

 inent, forming two regular rows, quite to the base. 



The first two pairs of arms are nearly equal and somewhat longer 

 than the two lower pairs, which differ but little between themselves. 

 The hectocotylized arm (third of right side) bears thirty-five suckers, 

 in two rows, and a remarkably large, terminal spoon-shaped organ, 

 which occupies more than a third of the total length of the arm; its 

 sides are bent up and the edges inrolled, so as to form a deep cavity; 

 its outer end is broadly rounded laterally, and terminates in a cen- 

 tral, narrow, acute lobe; internally thei'e are nine large, high, oblique 

 lamellae, with deep fossne between them ; the proximal end has a 

 large, acute, triangular lobe, with involute margins ; from this lobe a 

 broad groove runs along the lower edge of the arm to the margin of 

 the web ; where it terminates there is a distinct thickening of the 

 bounding membrane. 



The two males of this sj^ecies, described above, were dredged by 

 Mr. A. Agassiz, on the "Blake," in 1880, in 464 and 603 fathoms. 

 They agree well in the peculiar characters and large size of the 

 appendage of the hectocotylized arm. The females, only, were pi-evi- 

 ously known. Although these males have a mere trace of the loose 

 membranous fold of skin, along the sides and around the posterior 

 end, so conspicuous in the original female specimen of this species, 

 they agree so well in other characters that I unite them without much 

 hesitation. It is probable that the presence or absence of the mem- 

 branous fold, in this and other species, may be due merely to dilFer- 

 ences in the state of contraction when they die, or even to differences 

 in the strength of the alcohol. 



