A. E. Verrill — North American Cephalopods. 
299 
Chiroteuthis Bonplandi D’Orb. (?). 
Loligopsis Bonplandi Verany, Acad. Turin, ser. II, vol. i, PI. 5. (Specimen without 
tentacular arms, t. D’Orb.). 
Chiroteuthis Bonplandi D’Orbigny, Cephal. Acetab., p. 226. (Description compiled 
from Verany). 
Verrill, Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. viii, PI. 3, figs. 1-16, 1881. 
Plate XLVII, Figures 1-16. 
A detached tentacular arm, belonging to a species of Chiroteuthis , 
was taken by the IT. S. Coast Survey steamer “ Blake,” in the sum- 
mer of 1880, at station cccm, lat. 41° 34' 30", long. 65° 54' 30", in 
306 fathoms. 
The arm is very long and slender; the length being 780 mm (or over 
30 inches) ; its diameter being from 1*5 to 2 mm , except near the base, 
where it is 3 mm , and at the terminal club, which is 6 mm broad, and 
54 ,um long. The arm is white, w T ith purplish specks, and is generally 
roundish, except at the club; along the greater part of its length 
there is a row of rather distant sessile suckers, the distance between 
them being usually from 12-18 mm ; these suckers are larger than 
those of the club and have a nearly flat upper surface and no horny 
marginal rim. A row of small, simple, scattered pits, perhaps homo- 
logues of these suckers, extends up the back side of the club. These 
smooth suckers evidently serve to unite the tentacular arms together, 
when used in concert. The club is stouter than the rest of the arm, 
convex on both sides, and but little flattened ; on each side it is bor- 
dered by a well developed, marginal membrane, supported by a series 
of transverse, thickened, but flat, tapering, acute, muscular processes, 
with their ends projecting beyond the edge of the membrane, as digit- 
ations; on the distal half of the club, these are separated by spaces 
greater than their breadth, but on the proximal portion they sub- 
divide into two or three parts, which become crowded close together, 
showing only narrow intervals or merely a groove between them. 
At the tip of the arm there is a thick, ovate, dark purple, spoon - 
shaped, hollow organ, about 4""" long, with its opening on the back 
side of the arm. This so strongly resembles the spoon-shaped organ 
of the hectocotylized arm of some Octopods, as to suggest the pos- 
sibility of a similar use, for sexual purposes. The suckers are crowded 
in 4 to 8 indistinct rows. Their pedicels are long and slender, hav- 
ing beyond the middle a large, dark purple, fluted, swollen portion, 
beyond which the pedicel is more slender; the cup of the sucker 
is small and deep, with a very oblique, oblong-ovate, lateral opening; 
horny rim, not distinctly toothed (fig. 1 b). 
Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. V. 37 
February, 1881 . 
