No. 6.— Descriptions of Two Species of Octopus from ids 
By A. E. VERRILL. 
In the following paper the large Octopus punctatus, which inhabits the 
Pacific coast, from San Francisco to Sitka, is described and figured more 
fully than hitherto. A new species, known to the author for many 
years, is described under the name of 0. bimaculatus, a name intended 
to recall the presence of two large dark spots, one in front of each eye, 
near the bases of the arms. This species ranges from San Diego to 
Panama, and perhaps even farther south. 
Octopus punctatus Gass. 
Octopus punctatus GABB, Proc. California Acad., II., p. 170, 1862. 
Datt, Proc. California Acad., III., p. 243, fig. 27 (dentition), 1866. 
Plate IV. Plate V. Fig. 2. 
Body in preserved specimens more or less ovate, or depressed pyriform, 
broadly rounded behind and narrowed toward the neck; upper surface of the 
body and head covered with a soft lubricous integument, which, in the best 
preserved examples, is strongly and irregularly longitudinally wrinkled, but 
these wrinkles can be easily smoothed out by the fingers, leaving only slightly 
thickened, irregular patches and blotches, which are of a darker brown color 
than the rest of the surface ; similar, slightly raised, darker spots, of smaller 
size, are numerous on the web and outer surface of the arms; at the posterior 
end of the body the wrinkles are more conspicuous, and often give rise to 
prominent irregular folds, concentric to the body ; these appear to have more 
persistency than those of the dorsal surface, but as they can be nearly smoothed 
out, they probably appear and disappear during life, according to the state of 
contraction of the skin, as modified by the temper of the animal. The entire 
lower surface is smoother and paler, but shows small, irregular, scattered 
brown blotches, largest at the sides. The head is of moderate size, with promi- 
nent eyes ; above each eye are two large, prominent, compressed or angular, 
soft cirri, blunt at the tip, but not lobed ; the most anterior of these is oppo- 
site or in advance of the centre of the eye, the other is farther back ; around 
the bases of these cirri, and between them and the eyelids, there are numerous 
small, unequal, irregular, rounded and compressed warts, which stand some- 
what in lines radial to the eye. The siphon is large and long, gradually 
VOL. XI. — No. 6. 
