A. E. Verrill — Forth American Cephalopods. 
375 
at the surface, especially in summer, is sufficient to kill many of the 
deep-water animals, while others that live for a short time never 
recover entirely. 
This species resembles 0. lentils, but has a much larger and rough 
or lacerate cirrus above the eye. The modified arm of the male is also 
different. It is somewhat related to 0. Grtenlandicus Dewh., but 
the male of the latter has the third right arm much longer, with the 
modified spoon-shaped portion relatively very much smaller and quite 
different in form, and with more numerous folds, and the basal part 
bears 41 to 43 suckers ; the other arms also have more numerous 
suckers ; the web is less extensive and the body is more elongated and 
appears to be smooth and destitute of the large cirrus above the eyes, 
if correctly figured. 
0. obesus has the spoon-shaped part of the third right arm rela- 
tively larger, and several of the basal suckers of the other arms are 
in a single row. It also differs in other respects. 
Octopus lentUS Verrill. 
Verrill, Amer. Jour. Sei., xix, p. 138, Feb., 1880: p. 294, April, 1880; Bulletin 
Mus. Comp. Zool., viii, p. 108, pi. 1, fig. 2, $ . 
Plate XXXV, figures 1 , 2, 2 . Plate LI, figure 2, 3 . 
Female (type specimen): Body broad, stout, depressed, slightly 
emarginate at the posterior end, rather soft to the touch, and in some 
specimens gelatinous in appearance; a thin, soft, free, marginal mem- 
brane runs along the sides and around the posterior end of the body, 
becoming widest (about 12 mm ) posteriorly; in some of the more 
strongly contracted specimens this membrane is but little apparent. 
Head large, broad, depressed, with the eyes large and far apart ; 
above each eye there is a small, simple, conical, acute, contractile 
cirrus. A well-developed thin web connects the arms, considerably 
above their bases, and then runs up to the tips as broad margins to 
each arm. 
The arms are rather large, stout at base, with a broad inner face, 
and taper gradually to very slender tips; the first and third pairs are 
nearly equal in length; those of the second are also about equal in 
length to the fourth pair, but are somewhat shorter than the first and 
third. The arms on the right side, in the type-specimen, were all 
somewhat longer than the corresponding ones on the left. The arms, 
measuring from the beak, are more than twice as long as the body. 
The suckers are arranged in two distinct rows, to the base. 
Color of head and body above, and of body beneath, deep reddish 
