OCT à. m? 



Notes on a Specimen of Amphitretus obtained 

 in the S agami Sea. 



BY 



I. Ijima and S. Ikeda. 



With Plate II. 



During February 1897, Kuma, the collector of the Misaki Marine 

 Laboratory, brought to Professor Ijima a very remarkable octopod of a 

 beautiful and almost jelly-fish-like appearance, which was captured tbe 

 day previous near Okinosé in the Sagami Sea. The collector stated 

 that it had taken by mouth one of the hooks, baited with the flesh of a 

 Clupea, of a long-line which was lowered to a depth of about 572 

 meters. The specimen is now preserved in the Museum of the 

 Zoological Institute, Science College. 



A water-color sketch was made of the animal while fresh. This is 

 reproduced in Plate II, not altogether satisfactorily, but to the best of 

 efforts, under the circumstances. We owe to the liberality of the 

 Science College authorities that we are enabled to give that plate in this 

 paper. 



As the result of a careful examination of the specimen, conjointly 

 done by us, we have come to recognize it as a member of the rare and 

 interesting genus, Amphitretus Hoyle (Challenger Report, vol. XVI : p. 

 67 ; pl. IX, figs. 7 — 9). Perhaps it may with advantage be considered 

 even as identical with the single species as yet known of that genus, viz., 

 A. pelagicus, which was described by Hoyle (I.e.) for the first, and to our 

 knowledge also the last, time from a single, much contracted specimen, 

 obtained off the Kermadec Islands in the South Pacific. True, there 



