166 



THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Eigbt. 



Left. 



8 mm. 



8 mm. 



18 „ 







15 „ 



13 „ 



1.3 „ 





32 „ 



Length, of first arm,i 

 Length of second arm, 

 Length of third arm, 

 Length of fourth arm, 

 Length of tentacle. 



The specimen under consideration was only placed in my hands quite recently, so 

 that I have not had the opportunity of comparing it with Professor Steenstrup's 

 specimens ; hence its identification cannot be regarded as certain, the more so as the 

 original diagnosis of the species is very short, being in fact not a diagnosis but merely 

 an indication of the characters which distinguish it from the only other form {TracJielo- 

 teuthis behnii) known to the author. 



I cannot be sure of its identity with Verrilliola gracilis, Pfeffer; there are one or two 

 points in his description which may indicate specific distinctness, but they seem to me 

 unimportant. 



Iracheloteuthis (?) sp. (PL XXXI. figs. 6-10). 



Habitat.- — South Pacific, November 5, 1875 ; surface at night. One specimen. 

 November 11, 1875; surface. Two specimens (stained with carmine and mounted 

 in glycerine as microscopic objects). 



Faeroe Channel, August 8, 1882 ; surface. One specimen. 



PL XXXI. figs. 6, 7 represents a young Cephalopod which I have been unable to 

 refer to any species hitherto described, but it is so exceedingly immature that it would 

 not be justifiable to make it the type of a new species, and I therefore content myself 

 with publishing these drawings and a few remarks, in the hope that at some future time 

 it may find its true systematic position. 



Tlie Fades of the specimen is exceedingly like that of a Cranchia, so that in mj^- 

 first examination of the Challenger material I referred it to that group without any 

 hesitation ; closer examination failed to disclose the three connections between the 

 mantle and the head, even though in order to obtain complete certainty in this point I 

 dismounted one specimen and made an incision down the ventral aspect of the mantle. 



The Body is subcylindrical, elongated, and comparatively very large, presenting in 

 this respect a marked contrast to Loligo, Sepia, and other forms whose young stages are 

 well known. The Jins are small and terminal, and so folded that their true shape is 

 difficult to determine, but they appear each to have been transversely oval. The 

 mantle-cavity is as large as in Cranchia, Taonius or Tracheloteuthis, and in the mounted 

 specimens in which it has become apparently wider, owing to compression, the head at 

 the end of a kind of stem projects from it like a clapper from a bell. The siphon 



' Measured from the eye. 



