EEPOET ON THE CEPHALOPODA. 103 



Off Wexford, H.M.S. "Porcupine" Expedition, 1869. One specimen, $. 

 Britain (Pennant, Forbes and Hanley, Jeffreys); Norway (Loven, Steenstrup); 

 Mediterranean (as Eledone aldrovandi, Verany). 



Of this species I have examined a considerable number from our own coast as well 

 us some from other localities, and feel pretty confident that the table of synonyms above 

 given, though long, is correct. I have compared some specimens of Eledone aldrovandi 

 received from the Zoological Station at Naples, with young specimens from our own 

 coast, and can detect absolutely no points of specific importance between them.^ Older 

 specimens, as compared with the young ones, are proportionately longer in the body, 

 the tubercles on the back are more prominent, and the arms better developed. 

 One or two specimens from the east coast of Scotland are quite smooth, but I am dis- 

 posed to attribute this to their having been kept some time after death before being 

 placed in spirit, an opinion confirmed by their soft flabby consistency. 



The contraction due to this reagent often causes a disposition of the suckers in two 

 series on longer or shorter portions of the arms, and in some cases this is so consistent 

 and regular that it would not be difiicult on cursory examination to mistake the 

 specimen for an Octopus. 



Not having seen a male, I have been unable to confirm Steenstrup's observation 

 regarding the structure of the extremities of the arms in that sex.^ He found in a 

 specimen from Bergen that the suckers ceased a little below the tip, and were replaced 

 by pairs of minute cirri ; it would be very desirable to repeat this observation because 

 Steenstrup remarks that his specimen was in poor condition, and because the specimens 

 of Eledone aldrovandi from Naples disagree in this respect with his description, but 

 resemble Eledone moschata in possessing not cirri but cuticular folds at their ends : 

 this structure is figured by Steenstrup,^ and is visible on specimens sent me from Naples. 

 If the male Eledone cirrosa really possesses these paired threads it would tend to prove 

 that Eledone aldrovandi was not identical with it, but, as above remarked, I have 

 been unable to separate them by any external characters. 



What MacgiUivray's Eledone aldrovandi was it seems impossible to determine with 

 any certainty; it may have been a distorted specimen of the present species, but in any 

 case the name must be dropjsed. 



Eledone octopodia (Pennant) has been adopted by some authors as a name for this 

 species, but even if it could be proved beyond question that Pennant's Sepia octop>odia 

 is identical with it, then his name would not take precedence of the others, because he 

 did not name the species at all, but merely referred it erroneously to Linne's type, which 

 we now know as Octopus vulgaris. 



1 1 have ju-st ascertained that the identity of Eledone cirrosa (Eledone pennanii) with Eledone aldrovandi hsLS heen. 

 already suggested by Dr. Paul Fischer (Journ. de Gonch., s&. 3, t. vii. p. 13, 1867). 



2 Hectoctyl, p. 206, Tar. ii. fig. 6. 3 Qp. cit, Tav. ii. fig. 5. 



