SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 109 



The specimens now present numerous spots of a deep purplish brown colour ; according 

 to the number and aggregation of w^hich, the skin is darker or lighter. They occur in 

 greatest number on the back part of the head and trunk ; are wanting on the fins, and 

 on the under surface of the third and fourth pair of arms ; and are very sparingly dis- 

 tributed on the under part of the head and mantle, which are consequently of a light 

 colour : the most remarkable disposition of the dark pigment is that which the inner 

 surface of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pair of arms presents in the interspace of the suckers, 

 where it is disposed in broad, irregularly shaped, transverse stripes, corresponding to 

 each pair of suckers. 



As the dimensions of the arms, tentacles, head, body and fins, are accurately repre- 

 sented in the figures (PL XXI. figg. 6 & 7.) subjoined, which is taken from the largest 

 of the four specimens, they need not here be detailed. 



The head is slightly compressed, but broad ; supporting anteriorly, arms which are 

 relatively longer than in the Calamaries generally, the second and third pair being 

 nearly equal to the trunk in length. Laterally the head supports a pair of large and 

 well-developed eyes. The orifice in the integument leading to the capsule of the eye is 

 spherical, proportionally large, as in Loligo vulgaris, and in the axis of vision : the 

 sclerotica is perforated by a smaller aperture immediately behind the preceding, so that 

 the capsule of the lens is immediately exposed to the external surrounding medium ; the 

 lens is proportionally small, but attached to the cihary body as in the Sepia : the pig- 

 mentum appeared to be disposed in thick detached portions ; it was lined anteriorly by 

 an opake white substance, which I conceive to be the true retina, although the prin- 

 cipal expansion of the optic filaments is posterior to the pigment. The hyaloid mem- 

 brane was, as usual in this class, a strong and very distinct transparent coat. 



The body of the Lot. laticeps is subcylindrical and conical, gradually diminishing in 

 circumference till it terminates in a point at the posterior margin of the fins, which do 

 not extend conjoined together beyond this part, as in the Cranchia. The anterior margin 

 of the mantle is free in the whole of its circumference, as in the rest of the genus Loligo. 

 The muscles which connect the head to it posteriorly have their origins extended along a 

 pair of approximate cartilaginous styles placed at the back of the neck : the anterior 

 part of the mantle is secured by the two strong pillars of the funnel. 



On the inner surface of the mantle at its ventro -lateral aspects, are situated the two 

 elongated cartilaginous ridges, which are articulated, as in other Loligines, to cavities 

 of a corresponding form at the sides of the base of the funnel. The interior of the funnel 

 is provided with the usual valve, attached at the dorsal aspect of the canal. Two thin 

 membranes extend from the head to the back part of the funnel. The terminal orifice 

 of the funnel is oblique, but not to the same extent as in Cranchia scabra: in all the spe- 

 cimens I found four large spots of pigment arranged transversely below this orifice. 

 The fins are terminal and dorsal ; a space of about 4 a fine intervenes between their ori- 

 gin anteriorly, whence their bases converge and are united at the apex of the tnmk ; 



