160 PROF. OWEN ON NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 
M. Vélain was led, in his brief notice to the Academy of Sciences, to refer the huge 
specimen to Steenstrup’s genus Architeuthis. But in the later notice he specifies the 
singularly truncate character of the arms, which do not narrow to a point as in all 
other Cephalopods; he refers also to a totally different hinder termination of the 
“oladius.” This, however, is not shown in the photograph of the entire animal ; nor is 
the kind of difference specified. But, on the ground below cited1, the author proposes 
to refer his subject to a distinct genus, “JMouchezis,” 
(Mouchez) of the expedition. 
Of this specimen one of the tentacles, the beak, and pharynx were exhibited to the 
Academy of Sciences ; and those parts are doubtless preserved in the Museum of Natural 
History, Jardin des Plantes. 
If the stunted terminations of the ordinary cephalic arms of MWouchezis be accidental 
to the individual specimen, the characters of the brachial acetabula, both as to structure 
and arrangement, conform with those of the arm of the great Squid (Plectoteuthis 
grandis) above described. Of the existence of folds of skin extending from the margins 
of the acetabuliferous tract or the opposite parts of the arm of Mouchezis, no mention 
is made. 
in honour of the commandant 
What is remarkable in the tentacular pair is their great length, almost equalling 
that, relatively, in Loligopsis veranii?. The prolonged attenuation of the pointed end 
of the body approaches to that character in Loligo subulata, Lam.*; but it may be 
remarked that the corresponding end of the gladius in that species is not drawn out to 
the same degree. 
Assuming a cephalic arm of Mouchezis to have been one fourth the length of the 
extended tentacle, which is estimated at 16 feet, such arm would be less than half the 
length of the great Ommastrephic arm in the British Museum. 
The total length of Wouchezis, from the tip of the outstretched tentacle to the 
pointed end of the body, is set down as nearly 23 feet, leaving 8 feet for the length 
of the body. If, therefore, the tentacles of Plectoteuthis bore like proportions to those 
of Mouchezis, the total length of that Cephalopod must have greatly surpassed the 
Teuthid of the Isle of St. Paul*. 
1 «Ses dimensions, ses venteuses circulaires, garnies d'un cercle corné finement denticulé, leur disposition 
sur les bras, semblait motiver ce rapprochement, mais certains autres caractéres l’en éloignent; en particulier 
la forme singuli¢rement écourtée des bras, qui paraissent tronqués brusquement au lieu de terminer en une 
pointe effilée, comme dans tous les Céphalopodes, ainsi que la terminaison inférieure, toute différente, de 
Yosselet dorsal.”—Op. cit. p. 83. 
* D’Orbigny, op. cit. Loligopsis, pl. 2. fig. 1. 3 Id. ib. Loligo, pl. 17. figs. 1 & 2. 
* The above comparisons imply confidence in the accuracy of the dimension 7°15 m. assigned to Mouchezis. 
It would be acceptable to Cephalopodists if figures of the natural size of the parts of the mouth preserved, 
corresponding with those (Pls. XXX. & XXXII.) of Cook’s Hooked Squid, were published. Figures, nat. size, 
of one of the cephalic arms and of the acetabular expansion of the tentacle of Mouchezis would be equally 
welcome, 
