CEPHALOPODA OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
26-] 
Alloposus mollis Verrill 1880. 
? Halipkroti atlanticus Steenstrap 1859, p. 183 (.fide Hoyle). 
Alloposus mollis Verrill 1880, p. 394. 
Alloposus ■mollis Verrill 1881, p. 366, 420, 434, pi. 50, 51, figs. 3-4. 
Alloposus mollis Hoyie 1886, p. 7, 72. 
Alloposus moHii Joubin 1895, p. 4, 13, 55, pi. 5, fig. i, 3, 10, ii, pi. 6. 
Alloposus mollis iophin igoo, p. n, 30, 127, pi. 5. fig. 14, 15; pi. ii, fig. i. 
Alloposus mollis Berry 1909, p. 418 (locality record only). 
Body large, soft, smooth, semigelatinous in consistency, in shape ovoid, widest in front, narrower 
and roimded posteriorly. 
Head short and very broad; when contracted the lids of the large prominent eyes appear to have 
distinct openings. Mantle opening very wide and full, extending in two broad pouchlike curves 
from the median point of union with the ventral commissure to a point just past the eye on either side. 
Medio-ventral septum or commissure well developed, extending nearly to the anterior margin of the 
mantle, and thence reaching its dorsal attachment through a sinus in the posterior margin of the 
fiumel. Funnel enormous and almost entirely exposed; its apex reaching slightly past the eyes; 
fused with the ventral integument of the head for almo.st its entire length. Funnel organ extremely 
anterior in position and very large, comprising a broad W-shaped pad of a conspicuous brown ochre 
color; posterior lobes rounded; anterior lobes acute and almost meeting in the median line below 
(fig. 12). 
Arms moderate, decreasing in length and degree of attenuation from the dorsal to the ventral pair 
(in the present specimen their extremities are badly mutilated); connected at the base by a broad 
membranous umbrella, the latter attaining its greatest extent between the arms of the dorsal pair which 
it interwebs for much the greater portion of their length. Suckers large, elevated, deep, their rims of 
somewhat more massive consistency than the other tissues of the animal ; tliey are in two rows, or rather 
in a single more or less zigzag row which most conspicuously approaches the two-rowed condition after 
reaching the margin of the umbrella (at about the thirteenth sucker on the dorsal arms). 
The entire integument is of a somewhat stringy semigelatinous consistency. It does not preserve 
well and is badly torn away from the right side of the present specimen. 
Color of specimen preserved in formalin and alcohol a muddy buff, numerous brownish chromato- 
phores are distributed over the dorsal surface and to a considerably less extent below. 
Measurements of Aleoposus mollis. 
mm. 
Total length i47+ 
Tip of body to base of umbrella between dorsal arms 6$ 
Length of body 50 
Widthofbody 46 
Width across eyes 51 
Length of — 
Right dorsal arm 82+ 
Left dorsal arm 60+ 
Right second arm 90 
Length of— mm. 
Left second arm 72+ 
Right third arm 65 
Left third arm 51 + 
Right ventral arm 60+ 
Left ventral arm 59+ 
Umbrella between dorsal arms 54 
Umbrella between ventral arms 44 
Funnel 38 
Diameter of one of largest suckers 4 
Type . — In the United States National Museum. A cotype (from Fish Hawk station 893) is in the 
Yale University Museum. 
Type locality. — Fish Hawk station 880, 252 fathoms, off Newport, Rliode Island, September 13^ 
1880, three specimens. 
Distribution . — Off Newport, Rhode Island (Verrill), off Chesapeake Bay (Verrill); nortli Atlantic 
(Hoyle, Joubin), off Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts (Verrill); off Delaware Bay (Verrill), off the 
Azores (Joubin). 
Pailolo Channel, Hawaiian Islands {Albatross). 
Verrill gives the bathymetric range of the species as 236 to i ,346 fathoms. Fragments of this species 
have been obtained from a depth of 1,735 fathoms and likewise from the surface. 
