A. E. Verrill — North American Cephalopoda. 
379 
Octopus obesus Verrill. 
Terrill, American Jour. Sci., vol. xix, p. 137, Feb., 1880; vol. xix, p. 294, Apr,, 
1880. 
Plate XXXYI, figures 3, 3a, 8 . 
Male : Remarkable for the great size of the spoon-shapecl organ of 
the right arm of the third pair. Body relatively large, stout, oblong- 
oval, somewhat flattened above, obtusely rounded at the posterior 
end; soft and somewhat gelatinous in texture; skin, so far as pre- 
served, smooth, soft. No cirrus exists above the eye, in our specimen, 
but the skin is not so well preserved in that region as to render it 
certain that a small one may not have existed in life. Eyes very large. 
Arms moderately long, the dorsal longest, others successively 
shorter; all somewhat laterally compressed at base, tapering to long, 
slender tips ; a moderately developed web connects them together at 
base. The hectocotylized arm (third of right side), bears at the end 
a very large, broad and thick, but not very deep, spoon-like organ, 
occupying more than a third of the total length of the arm ; its 
inner surface is crossed by eleven oblique, thick, rounded folds or 
ribs, ten of them converging backward to the median line and at 
their outer ends joining a marginal thickening. The distal end ter- 
minates in a median, pointed lobe, or tip, with a thin, rounded, lateral 
lobe each side of it ; the proximal border is formed by the last (elev- 
enth) fold, which is V-shaped, with the apex pointing distally. A 
broad, thin, marginal membrane extends along the lower side of the 
arm, from the terminal organ to the base. The suckers have been 
partly detached from this arm. 
The suckers of all the arms are moderately large, nearly globular 
in form, rather numerous; the first six to ten, at the base, are nearly 
in one line, except on the left arm of the second pair, and appear to 
form only a single row; in this part the inner face of the arm is nar- 
row, most so on the right arm of the second pair, and least on the 
left arm of the same pair; farther out this face becomes broader and 
the suckers are in two distinct rows. The suckers are destroyed on 
the distal portion of all the arms. 
The color of the body and arms is mostly destroyed, but so far as 
preserved, is pale pinkish, more or less thickly specked with distinct 
reddish brown spots, most conspicuous at the base of the arms and 
above the eyes, (elsewhere the color is probably not so well pre- 
served). 
Length of body, from the posterior end to the base of arms, 82""" ; 
to center of eye, 72 ; to edge of mantle, beneath, 49 ; to tip of right 
Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol V. 45 Auqi:st, 1881. 
