54 



7 he Irish Naturalist. 



March, 



ON SOME IRISH SPECIMENS OF A I^ARGE SQUID, 

 STHENOTEUTHIS PTEROPUS (Steknstrup.) 



BY A. R. NICHOI.S, M.A., M.R.I. A. 



A LARGE Squid was cast on the shore at Miltown Malbay, Co. 

 Clare, a few years ago, and kindly sent to the Dublin Museum 

 by Mrs. Morny, of Miltown House, Miltown Malbay. 



I recognised it at the time as belonging to the family 

 Ommastrephidae, but was not able to determine the species, as 

 the specimen differed considerably from the descriptions of 

 any of the British species of Ommastrephidse in Norman ('90). 

 A paper entitled " British Cephalopoda, their Nomenclature 

 and Identification," having been published in 1902 by Dr. 

 W. E- Hoyle, the author of the Report on the Cephalopoda 

 collected by H. M. S. Challenger, I recently endeavoured to 

 determine the Squid by means of the characters given in this 

 paper, and identified it as Sthe^iotciithis pteropus. 



This species inhabits the Atlantic Ocean, and the first 

 recorded British specimen was captured off Salcombe, Devon, 

 and described by Goodrich ('92), who states that there is in 

 the British Museum an incomplete specimen obtained at 

 Scarborough, November, 1883, and also one captured in the 

 North Sea, February, 1884. 



The specimen now recorded from Miltown Malba}^ was 

 slightly damaged, the head having been detached from the 

 mantle, and some of the internal organs missing; from the 

 absence of any trace of hectocotylisation of the arms I con- 

 cluded that it was a female. The following are the principal 

 measurements taken by myself shortly after its capture and 

 before it was put into methylated spirits : — Length, from the 

 extremity of the body to the edge of the mantle, A B (see 

 figure), 66 cm. (26 inches) ; breadth, across caudal fins, C D, 

 54 cm. (21.2 inches); length of caudal fins along the dorsal 

 line of attachment, A K, 29 cm. (11.4 inches). Each of the 

 first (dorsal) pair of sessile arms, E, E', is 33 cm. (13 inches) 

 long ; each of the third and longest pair of sessile arms, G G, 

 is 38 cm. (15 inches) long. On the outer surface of each of 

 the third pair of arms there is a prominent crest or keel, and 



