PEOr. OWEN ON NEW AND EAEE CEPHALOPODA. 137 



fig. 2, b), the mid lobe more prominent than the side ones b'; on the ventral surface 

 (PL XXV. fig. 2) the hinder two thirds of the mid lobe, b, are traversed by a median longi- 

 tudinal groove. This is barely indicated in the sepium of &'. officinalis, but is continued 

 through the whole length of the same part and surface of the sepium of S. australis, 

 d'Orb.\ which has a sharp and slender well-produced " mucro." The specific characters 

 of the sepium of S. palmata are well brought out in a comparison of the figures of that 

 part in the plates of the richly illustrated work of the French cephalopodists. The 

 form which comes nearest to the sepium of the present species is that of *S'. longimanus 

 of Quoy 2. 



The colour of Sejna palmata, in the quiescent state of the Cuttle, is a dull or dirty 

 sub violet-pinkish . 



The subject of Plates XXIV. and XXV. was captured off the shore of Norfolk Island, 

 Australia. The figures are reduced to three fourths of the natural size. 



Genus Sepioteuthis, Blainville ^ 

 Species Sepioteuthis beevis, Owen. (Plate XXVI. fig. 1.) 



The present form of Decapod agrees with Sepia in the extent of attachment of the 

 lateral fins (ib. e, e); but the development of the internal shell is restricted to the sheath, 

 or part homologous with the " guard " of the Belemnite, the chamber-walls of the 

 phragmocone not being developed, and no part of the shell being calcified. 



Of this form I have received a specimen from the Japanese sea, the arras of which 

 had sufi"ered some mutilation; but the proportion of the body to the head, of the breadth 

 of the body to its length, and the narrowness of the lateral fins forbade its reference to 

 any of the previously described or defined species of Sepioteuthis to which, or to their 

 descriptions, I have had access. 



I submitted the specimen to dissection, found that it was of the male sex ; and, as 

 these organs have not, to my knowledge, hitherto been made known in the genus 

 Sejnoteitthis, I add a figure of them, iti situ, to the few remarks now submitted on the 

 characters of the species. 



The head is short and broad across the eyes. These have a tegumentary covering, 

 transparent as in Sepia, and leaving the curtained iris (ib. fig. 1, m) visible. Behind 

 the prominence of the eye-ball a low ridge of integument, with a subcrenate border, 

 n, extends in a pai'allel curve, and, from its relation to the acoustic foramen, has been 

 compared to an external ear*. 



The cephalic arms are short, provided on their dorsal or peripheral surface with a 

 longitudinal tegumentary fold, a', and on the opposite surface with two rows of acetabula 

 1 Op. eit. p. 285, pi. (Seiches) 7, fig. 4. 



^ Zoologie de I'Astrolabe, foL, torn. ii. p. 68, Mollusqiies, pi. 2. figs. 2, 11. 

 ° Malacologie, 8vo, 1823 (syn. Chondrosepia, Leuckart, 1828). 

 * " Oreille externe," d'Orb. oj). cit. p. 297. 



