3i6 
bulletin of the bureau of fisheries. 
Subgenus IridotbuThis Naef 1912. 
IridotheuihisNael 1912. p. 247. 
Body extremely short and rounded; transversely compressed. Nuchal commissure very broad, 
reaching to a point opposite the anterior margin of the fins. Fins exceedingly large, their basal attach- 
ment relatively narrow . Mantle produced far forward ventrally so as to nearly conceal the head and 
funnel. Head very large, the eyes much swollen and protruding. 
Arms very unequal; dorsal and second pairs short; third pair con- 
siderably longer. Photogenic organs inconspicuous, leaving the 
greater portion of the ink sac uncovered. 
Type. — Stoloteuthis iris Berry 1909 (monotypic); described from 
the Hawaiian Islands. 
Stoloteuthis (Iridoteuthis) iris Berry 1909. (PI. l, fig. i, 2.) 
Stoloteuthis iris Berry 1909, p. 410, 418, fig 3. 
Iridotkeidkis iris Naef 1912, p. 247. 
Body small, short, stout; much compressed and flattened later- 
ally, rounded very abruptly behind; width and length dorsally 
about equal and both greatly exceeded by the depth. Mantle 
smooth, broadly continuous above with the integument of the head 
from which it is delimited only by a rather prominent cutaneous 
line or shallow fold; anterior ventral margin produced forward 
beneath the eyes and far past them to form a broad, deeply convex 
lobe, which almost entirely conceals the fimnel and ventral surface 
of the head to which its upturned anterior margin is closely applied. 
A shallow notchlike indentation in the free anterior edge of the lobe 
permits tlie tip of the funnel to be seen; convex central region of 
lobe differentiated from the rest of tlie mantle surface as a large, 
slightly raised and flattened, heart-shaped area. Laterally, as in 
Verrill’s Nectoteuthis, the mantle margin “recedes in such a way as 
to leave tlie large prominent eyes exposed.” Fins relatively enor- 
mous, thin, their outline rounded oblong to subcircular; much 
narrowed at the base; slightly broader and conspicuously longer 
than the body, exceeding it both anteriorly and posteriorly; ante- 
rior margin reaching to the eyes, its extremity rounded; posterior 
margin obtusely pointed; the plane along which the fins are attached 
is considerably above the median horizontal plane of the body. 
Head extremely large; short, wide, flattened. Eyes large, so 
swollen and protruded in the only specimen at hand that tliey have 
lost all appearance of having free lids, perhaps because in pushing 
outward they have evaginated the usual circular lid fold; they are 
situated in the angle of the mantle margin above the ventral lobe. 
Funnel visible only after the removal of the mantle lobe; very broad 
at base, tlience rapidly tapering to a sudden and deep constriction 
which occurs just in advance of the middle; entire extremity 
beyond the constriction swollen and thickened; a secondary gland- 
like swelling occurs on the dorsal external aspect of the funnel in 
this region, terminating in a very short blunt papilla which fits 
in between the true tip of the funnel and the bases of the ventral arms; walls of funnel thick, the 
interior narrowed and of relatively small capacity; aperture very minute. Fxmnel organ large, occu- 
pying almost the entire interior surface posterior to the median constriction; dorsal cushion with widely 
flaring lateral wings, almost trilobate in outline; ventro-lateral pads large, wide, and very loosely 
Fig. 27. — Stoloteuthis iris, lateral view of 
type [31]. X 4. Drawn by R. R. Hud- 
son. 
