Eight. 



Left. 



f)5 mm. 



60 mm. 



60 „ 



63 „ 



65 „ 



65 „ 



40 „ 



50 „ 



REPOET ON THE CEPHALOPODA. 89 



Length of first arm, ...... 



Length of second arm, ...... 



Length of third arm, ...... 



Length of fourth arm, . .... 



It is doubtful what value is to be attached to the raised ridge mentioned above ; it is 

 to be seen in other species under certain conditions, possibly due either to different 

 modes of preservation or to varying states of contraction ; nevertheless, in the majority 

 of forms it is never observed, and I am therefore inclined to attribute to it a certain 

 systematic importance, the more especially as it occurs in both the specimens before me. 

 Octopus membranaceus, Q. and G., seems to present the same condition carried out 

 more fully. 



The present species is decidedly paler and more ruddy in colour than Octopus 

 granulatus, and the granulations are not so large nor so closely set as in that form. The 

 mottling on the sides, too, is very marked. 



Octopus tehuelcluis, d'Orbigny. 



1835. Octopus teliuelclitis, d'Orb., Am^r. merid., p. 27, pi. 1. figs. 6, 7. 



1838. „ „ d'Orb., C6ph. ac6t., p. 55; Poulpes, pi. xvii. fig. 6. 



1870. „ megalocyathus, Phil. (T), Cunningham, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., vol. xxvii. p. 474. 



Habitat.' — St. Thomas, Danish West Indies ; 8 fathoms. 



East coast of Patagonia ; lat. 40° S. (d'Orbigny) ; Strait of Magellan and Punta 

 Arenas (Cunningham); Nicaragua (Copenhagen Museum). 



I refer to this species, not without some hesitation, a small Octopus of about 

 5 cm. in total length, from the West Indies. The body is proportionally a little 

 more elongated th^in in d'Orbigny's figure, but a specimen in the British Museum, 

 brought by Cunningham from Sandy Point, resembles closely that obtained 

 by the Challenger, which is also much lik« an unnamed form in the Copenhagen 

 Museum from San Jan de Nicaragua, except that the arms of the latter are some- 

 what larger. 



Cunningham's specimen in the British Museum is almost certainly the one alluded to 

 in the Zoology of the Voyage of the " Nassau" {loc. cit.), where he speaks of obtaining it 

 at the eastern end of the Strait of Magellan, and of numbers of mutilated specimens 

 being thrown up on the beach at Punta Arenas. I have not been able to find the 

 original description of " Octopus megalocyathus, Phil.," the only species bearing that 

 name known to me being the one described by Gould in the MoUusca of the Wilkes 

 Expedition, p. 471. 



(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. PART XLIV. 1886.) Xx 12 



