AND  ACCOUNT  OF  A  NEW  SPECIES  OF  SEPIOLA. 
85 
respondents  there,  which,  though  agreeing  in  general  form  with  the  European  species, 
presents  pecuHarities  sufficiently  marked  and  important  to  entitle  it  to  be  regarded  as 
the  type  of  a  new  species.    Its  proportions  are  massive,  short,  and  broad  ;  and  its  colour 
is  a  deep  purplish  brown,  extending  to  the  points  of  the  arms,  and  produced  by  large 
closely  set  spots  of  that  colour.    It  measures  three  inches  from  the  base  of  the  body  to 
the  point  of  the  arms,  being  about  twice  the  ordinary  length  of  the  European  species  ; 
the  two  tentacula  themselves  measure  three  inches  and  three  lines  in  length.   The  length 
of  the  mantle  behind  is  one  inch  and  one  line,  the  length  of  the  head  is  six  lines,  and 
that  of  the  longest  arms  one  inch  and  three  lines.    The  body  measures  one  inch  and  one 
line  in  breadth  ;  and  the  breadth  of  the  head  across  the  pupils  is  one  inch.   The  tentacula 
extend  from  within  two  muscular  folds,  connecting  the  third  to  the  fourth  pair  of  arms 
in  front,  as  in  the  Sep.  vulgaris :  they  are  small  and  cylindrical  to  near  their  extremity, 
where  they  expand,  and  present  a  villous  surface,  bat  have  no  suckers  developed.  The 
suckers  of  the  arms  are  large  and  irregularly  crowded,  of  a  spherical  form,  and  placed 
on  long  thick  peduncles.    In  place  of  being  in  two  alternate  rows,  as  in  Sep.  vulgaris, 
the  suckers  are  here'  crowded  seven  or  eight  deep  on  the  broadest  part  of  the  arms: 
each  sucker  is  provided  with  a  circular  dark-coloured  osseous  ring  at  its  orifice.  The 
arms  are  proportionally  much  thicker  and  shorter  than  in  Sep.  vulgaris ;  and  hence 
they  present  a  much  broader  inner  surface  for  the  attachment  of  numerous  rows  of 
suckers.    From  this  contracted  form  of  the  cephalic  arms,  by  which  it  differs  so 
much  from  the  European  species,  I  have  termed  it  Sep.  stenodactyla.    In  some  parts  of 
the  arms  the  crowded  arrangement  of  the  suckers  is  seen  to  depend  on  the  zigzag 
direction  taken  by  the  rows  of  peduncles  on  each  side.    The  coloured  markings  on  the 
outer  surface  of  the  arms  are  in  the  form  of  transverse  bands  ;  in  Sep.  vulgaris  they  are 
generally  minute  detached  spots.    The  white  band  around  the  upper  margin  of  the 
mantle,  the  lengthened  form  of  the  syphon  and  the  position  of  its  valve,  the  form  and 
the  subdorsal  direction  of  the  eyes,  the  shape  and  the  position  of  the  dorsal  fins,  and 
the  rounded  termination  of  the  mantle,  are  like  those  of  the  common  species.  This 
Indian  species,  however,  is  more  than  four  times  the  size  of  any  European  specimen 
which  I  have  seen,  and  the  form  of  the  mantle  is  more  ventricose.    The  specimen, 
being  the  property  of  the  Society,  and  the  only  one  obtained,  was  not  dissected. 
PLATE  XL 
Fig.  1 .  Sepiola  stenodactyla,  back  view,  natural  size. 
Fig.  2.  Sepiola  stenodactyla,  front  view,  natural  size. 
Fig.  3.  Sepiola  vulgaris,  back  view,  natural  size. 
Fig.  4.  Sepiola  vulgaris,  front  view,  natural  size.    a.  a.  muscular  fold  extended  be- 
'  Fig.  6.  a. 
