134 PROF. OWEN ON NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 
Suborder DECAPODA, Leach’, 
Fam. SEPIAD, Owen?. 
Genus Sepia, Lamarck *. 
Species SEPIA PaLMATA, Ow. (Plates XXIV. and XXV.) 
Of the present species the name relates to the great extension of the interbrachial 
webs (ib. fig. 1, @, a), to which the nearest approach seems to be made by Sepia 
orbignyana, Férussac*, and Sepia elegans, d’Orb.°, but in so feeble a degree that their 
presence is not noted in the text (pp. 273, 280), or shown in the plates “(Seiches) 5 and 
8 ;” the degree in which such webs are developed in these species, however, is given in 
a subsequent plate, below cited, where an oral view of the head, with arms outstretched, 
exhibits the slight development of the basal webs in each of the species. 
The second specific character of Sepia palmata is shown by the fins (ib. 0, 6), which 
not only commence at the fore part of the body, but extend in advance thereof almost 
to the degree of the medio-dorsal production of the mantle; the fins are also produced 
further back than usual, and coalesce (0!) beyond the end of the body®. In Sepia lati- 
manus’ the fins terminate near the pointed end of the body and leave no notch, but do 
not unite together. 
To the relative proportion of the body to the head with its “corona,” in which 
character the Cuttles come nearer than the Squids to the Poulpes, Sepia palmata addsa 
development of the interbrachial webs equal to that in Octopus vulgaris and the species 
last described (Pl. XXIII.). But the web is not continued in S. palmata between the 
arms of the fourth pair. These, however, develop a narrow fold of the integument 
from the outer and hinder surface (Pl. XXV. fig. 1, a’). The arms decrease in length from 
the 4th to the Ist, but in a very slight degree from the 4th to the 3rd. The acetabular 
surface supports four rows of suckers, in the usual alternate relative position, The 
suckers are small, rather more than hemispheres in shape, supported each by a peduncle 
attached to one side of their “ pole” and giving them an oblique position, The acetabular 
cayity is small in proportion to its muscular walls, and is lined next its outlet by a broad 
corneous hoop, the free border of which is finely denticulate. The interbrachial webs 
* “Cephalopoda decapoda,” Zoological Miscellany, iii., 1817. Tribus Decapoda, Trans. Zool. Soc. yol. ii, 
(1841), p. 129. 
* Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ii. (1841), p. 129. 3 Syst. des Anim. sans Vertébres, 1801. 
“ Hist. Nat. des Céphalopodes, fol., 1835-1848, p. 273 (Seiches), pl. y. and pl. xxvii. figs. 1, 2. 
Tid. p. 280 (Seiches), pl. viii., and pl. xxvii. fig. 5. 
The terminal notch between the side fins is so common in the species of Sepia that d’Orbigny makes of it 
a generic character :—‘ Nageoires—commencant & la partie antérieure méme du corps, ou au moins a trés peu 
5 
6 
de distance ; le bordant latéralement sur toute sa longueur, en laissant entre elles, en arriére, une forte 
échancrure ” (op. cit., p. 250). 
* Op, cit., Seiches, pl. xii. fig. 1; Quoy et Gaimard, Zool. de V Astrolabe, Atlas, Mollusques, pl. ii. figs. 2-11. 
