Berry — Review of Cephalopod Genera 349 



for relating Scpioloidca and Scf^iaddriiiiii to tlic sepiulids rather than to the 

 sepioids, and hence placed them in a suh-faniily. Scpiadarii. of his family .Vr/'/o- 

 lidac. Unfortunately most of his group names are not formed according to 

 modern etymological rules, so cannot now be used. 



Nacf ( IIJ12, p. 248) places both genera in a sub-family Scpiadarinac of the 

 Scpiolidac, which arrangement therefore stands as the most recent treatment of 

 the group. 



It is easy to pick flaws in the argument of almost any of these writers. In 

 fact each view advanced seems to find its strongest support in attacking the weak 

 points ot opposing views, only Sleenstrup and Appellof succeednig m adiiing 

 many new facts to the discussion. In fairness it must be said that the more 

 recent taxonomic work on other groups of cephalopods has tended to bear out in 

 the main the faith of Steenstrup in the tactical value of the hectocotjdized arm 

 as a criterion of systematic relationship. ( )n the other hand it is always easy to 

 overstress any single feature, especiall\- where, as in this instance, our embryo- 

 logical and anatomical knowledge is >till scanty. Certainly no present-day 

 student would place either of these genera under the Scpiidac, or under the 

 LoUainidac. groups which are now known to lie rather far apart phylogenetically 

 instead of closelv linked as .Steenstrup understood them. \'ery conceivably some 

 such splitting of the old families as that proposed by Fischer must ultimately lie 

 adopted. l)ut in the lack of so much of the essential evidence, the ends of the 

 present paper will no doubt be ser\ed best by following the weight of opinion, 

 which brings us into essential agreement with the principles, if not the names, of 

 Appal lot. 



The number of species in the sub-famil\- is few. Sepioloidca contains but 

 the single species upon which it was founded. Since the description of S. kochii, 

 the type species of Scpiadariimi. the only species added to the genus has been 

 Robson's auritum in ii;i4. The third species here brought to light is not so very 

 different from the <ither two. The distributiijn of Sepioloidca is wholly Austra- 

 lian as far as we know from the published records. Scpiadarinm is a more 

 characteristic member of the Indo-Malayan fauna, reaching from Ceylon and 

 southern Japan to South Australia. 



KEY TO GENERA of the SUIS-FAMILV SEPIAUARIIXAE. 



a. Mantle not fused with funnel, but articulating therewith 

 by a cartilaginous socket and nodule ; body strongly 

 papillose on the sides and with conspicuous longi- 

 tudinal colour bands dorsally : mantle margin 

 stronglv laciniate near nuchal commissure.. .. Sepioloidca. [>. ^^o 



