410 Mr. E. A. Smith on Argonauta Bottgeri. 



The animals obtained by Mr. Keene are in a somewhat 

 poor state of preservation, and therefore admit only of partial 

 description. The body appears to be rather more than twice 

 as long as broad, of about equal breadth throughout, but 

 somewhat narrowed at the posterior dorsal extremity. It is 

 of a dirty buff tint, ornamented with numerous dots, spots, 

 and rings of a purple-black colour, which is much darker on 

 the dorsal than on the ventral surface. The arms are also 

 marked with scattered minute dots and rings. The dorsal 

 pair are a trifle the thickest and longest, the third pair almost 

 if not quite as long, and the second and fourth pairs shortest. 



No idea of the expansions of the dorsal arm, which serves 

 for the retention of the shell, can be obtained, owing to the 

 condition of the specimens ; it is evident, however, that 

 scarcely any interbrachial web exists at the base of any of 

 the arms. 



The beak is strong and coal-black. The lower mandible 

 is but very little produced or beaked ; the upper one is a 

 trifle smaller and narrower, but not acutely pointed. The 

 suckers on all the arms are raised on thick peduncles, which 

 are not contracted at the base, and those towards the base are 

 the largest, the rest gradually decreasing in size towards the 

 extremities. On what is left of the third pair of arms there are 

 seventy-two, alternating in two series of thirty-six ; but this 

 number is not likely to be constant. 



The teeth, as usual, are in seven rows ; the median tooth is 

 broad at the base and tricuspid, the central cusp being acu- 

 minated and very much longer than the lateral cusps ; the 

 next or first lateral tooth has a broad base, occupying about 

 half the total length, is then narrowed and pointed ; the 

 two outer laterals are larger than the rest and somewhat 

 curved and tapering, the outermost being rather narrower 

 at the base than the other. 



The ova contained in one of the shells are very numerous, 

 probably some hundreds in number, of a yellowish-white 

 colour, and occupy about half the shell. They are con- 

 nected into one mass by extremely fine hair-like filaments. 

 They are not all of exactly the same size, but average almost 

 1 millimetre in diameter. 



The shell of this species must not be confounded with the 

 young stages of A. Mans ; the more numerous ribs and 

 tubercles and the rougher granular surface will separate it. 

 The animal also has a different radula and other distin- 

 guishing characters. The teeth of a specimen of A. Mans 

 which I have examined closely resemble those of A. argo 

 {vide d'Orbigny and Ferussac, Hist. nat. Cephalop. pi. i. 



