A. E. Verrill — North American Gephalopods. 415 



origin of the fins, is lanceolate, with two faint, close ribs along the 

 middle, and less distinct parallel lines each side of these ; the tip is 

 an acute hollow cone, abont 10'""^ long. 



Color of mantle, pale yellowish white, translucent, with scattered, 

 conspicuous, round, or more or less elliptical, purplish brown spots, 2 

 to 3""" in diameter, and 5 to 10'"™ apart. Eyes dark purplish or 

 chocolate-brown ; head, siphon, and outer surfaces of arms thinly 

 specked with purplish brown chromatophores. 



The length of the largest specimen is 163"'"', from end of tail to tip 

 of 3d pair of arms; length of mantle, dorsally, lie"'"'; mantle to 

 base of dorsal arms, ii™"i ; diameter of eyes, 17"'"'; breadth of head 

 across eyes, 30"'"' ; breadth of body, 26'"'" ; length of caudal fin, 45""" ; 

 its breadth, 28'"'" ; length of dorsal arms, 20'"'" ; of 2d pair, 25'"'" ; of 

 3d pair, 32'"'" ; of 4th pair, 20'"'" ; of tentacular arms, 35""" ; of club, 

 11"""; breadth of latei-al arms, at base, 3.5'""^; diameter of largest 

 suckers, 2-5""". 



The teeth of the odontophore (PI. LV, fig. 2a) form seven rows, 

 as usual ; the median teeth have a xery large and long median den- 

 ticle and a small one at each lateral angle ; the inner lateral teeth 

 have a large inner denticle and a very small outer one; the two outer 

 rows are rather stout ; there is also a marginal row of small, more or 

 less elliptical plates, with their outlines rather indefinite. 



Ofi" Martha's Vineyard, 87^ miles from Gay Head, station 952, in 

 388 fathoms. U. S. Fish Commission, Aug. 4, 1881. 



This species resembles Taonius pavo (for which I at first mistook 

 it) in form, but is very different in color and other characters. The 

 suckers, which are remarkably flat in T. pavo^ and strongly serrate, 

 are in this very deep, and the edge of the ring is generally entire. 

 The pen is also different. 



Notes on the visceral anatomy. 



Anatomically, this species closely resembles Desmoteuthis hyper- 

 borea. (See PI. XXXIX, fig. 1.) It has a similar short, thick, com- 

 pressed, ovate liver, with the intestine in a groove along its ventral 

 edge, and the small ink-sac imbedded in its antero-ventral surface. 

 The gills are laterally placed, short, with long lamellae. The heart 

 is small, irregularly tubular, oblique, with four angles or lobes where 

 joined by the principal vessels. The efferent vessels from the gills 

 are long and conspicuous, because the bases of the gills are distant 

 from the heart. The alimentary tract consists of a short, narrow 

 rectum, attached to the liver, and ending in a bilabiate aperture. 



