276 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
Type . — Catalogue No. 214385, United States National Museum. [S. S. B. No. 211.] 
Type locality. — Albatross station 3904, surface, off Mokapu Islet, north coast of Molokai, Hawaiian 
Islands; one fragmentary specimen, April 30, 1902. 
Distribution. — Vicinity of Molokai, Hawaiian Islands (Albatross). 
Specimens examined. — In addition to the type but one other even more fragmentary specimen has 
been seen. This was taken in the Pailolo Channel near Molokai, from a depth of 258 to 284 fathoms. 
Albatross station 3898 [S. S. B. No. 212]. 
Remarks. — Both the specimens mentioned are in extremely fragmentary and indeed partially 
decomposed condition. In the larger example, which has been chosen for the type, only the mouth 
parts, fortunately together with a large part of the umbrella and the inclosed portions of the arms, remain 
in a recognizable state. The tips of the arms are missing, and the viscera as well as the eyes have been 
entirely tom from the body. What remains of the head and mantle is tangled and lacerated beyond 
repair. The lateral fins still adhere and are fortunately more or less intact. The funnel is present, 
but there is no trace of the funnel organ. Large fragments of the 
internal cartilages remain but defy any accmrate description at 
my hands. 
The smaller specimen is even more mutilated, so that here 
only the buccal mass and those portions of the umbrella and arms 
which immediately adjoin it are left to us. 
Even from these wrecks, however, enough has been made out 
to render it evident that a species is represented which, though 
closely allied to Cirroteuthis and Stauroteuthis, differs very mark- 
edly in the apparently total absence of cirri on any of the arms as 
well as the presence of an odontophore, a stmcture reported to 
exist in no species of the two genera named except the recently 
described C. macrope Berry from the coast of California. Perhaps, 
pect of left fin of type [211], natural size, “‘ieed, it IS not impossible that the latter species IS congenenc. _ 
Drawn by R. L. Hudson. In addition to the supposed absence of cirri, this species is 
distinguishable from Cirroteuthis magna Hoyle, C. umbellata 
Fischer, C. megaptera Verrill, C. mulleri Escliricht, and Stauroteuthis meangensis Hoyle, by the rela- 
tively smaller and differently shaped fins, which are obovate and in outline more nearly like those of 
C. pacifica Hoyle. From the last species, however, the present form differs in the larger, much less 
numerous suckers,® lack of cirri, and less prominent differentiation of the arms from the web. It 
differs, moreover, from C. magna, C. mulleri, and 5 . syrtensis Verrill in the lack of an “intermediate 
web” joining the arms to the umbrella. Correlation of the Albatross specimens with the descriptions 
of C. caudani Joubin, C. plena Verrill, C. macrope Berry, C. grimaldii Joubin, or 5 . hippocrepium Hoyle 
is equally out of the question. The tendency to a zigzag displacement exhibited by many of the suckers 
might be regarded as a characteristic feature, were it not for the possibility that it is due to distortion. 
All the basal suckers are relatively very distant from one another, the space between those of the same 
row being about 25 millimeters, but they gradually become more closely ranked distally. 
Of course the possibility must not be overlooked that the apparent absence of cirri may be due 
to their restriction to the extremities of the arms as above suggested, but to the unfortimate state of 
preservation of the material. However, the appearance of the specimens in question is such that I 
have felt obliged to regard the possibility as a remote one, so that the erection of a new group seems 
expedient. 
It is extremely unfortunate that the condition of both specimens is so imsatisfactory, but they 
belong to a family of abyssal octopods of such elusive habit and tender structure that almost all the 
described species have been founded upion similar fragmentary material. We have a really complete 
knowledge of scarcely any of these forms, and it may be that the number of nominal species will have 
0 An appearance which perhaps may be partially due to the loss of the distal portions of the arms, as in quite a number of 
forms the basal suckers are less crowded than their successors. 
