328 
BUIvLETIN of the bureau of fisheries. 
Prevailing color of animal preserved in alcohol, a pale buff brown; the glad ius showing through the 
dorsal integument as a very prominent medio-longitudinal line. Chromatophores brownish; most 
numerous on the upper surface of the head, which is thus rendered very dark in color; much less numer- 
ous on the dorsal aspect of the mantle and below largely replaced by the bluish photophores which 
are strongly contrasted with the chromatophores in color. Buccal membrane almost uniformly pale, 
with only a few scattered chromatophores. 
Gladius with a thickened midrib; wings unthickened, very delicate, and with distinctly angular 
margins. 
Measurements op Abralia astrosticta. 
mm. 
Total length 6s 
Length exclusive of tentacles 56. 5 
Length of mantle, dorsal 34 
Extreme length of fins 1 1 
Length of fins at base 9 
Width across fins 22 
Width of mantle 10 
Width of head 9 
Length of — 
Head 8 
Right dorsal arm ii 
Length of — mm. 
Left dorsal arm 1 1 
Right second arm 13 
Left second arm 15 
Right third arm 12 
Left third arm 12 
Right ventral arm 13 
Left ventral arm 13.5 
Tentacle 23 
Tentacle club 4 
Funnel 6. s 
Type. — A female; catalogue No. 214313, United States National Museum [S. S. B. 171]. 
Type locality. — Albatross station 4122, 192 to 352 fathoms depth, off Barbers Point Light, Oahu, 
bottom of coarse coral sand and shell, July 26, 1902; one $ specimen. 
Distribution. — Hawaiian Islands (Albatross). 
Material examined. — No other specimens than the type are known. 
Remarks. — This very beautiful little squid is a member of a rare and exceedingly eurious group of 
cephalopods which have been sparsely taken at divers times and in many widely separated localities, 
and the interrelationships of which are by no means as yet clearly understood. They are Enoploteu- 
thids chiefly characterized by the double row of hooks on the arms supplanted distally by suckers, and 
the extensive development of photogenic organs over the entire ventral surface of the head and body, 
though not within the mantle cavity, as in the case of certain forms similar to some which will be 
described later. The peculiar feattues of the group were first recognized (although only partially) by 
Gray, who in 1849 founded the genus Abralia for their reception. Many years later (Joubin 1896) 
a second genus, Abraliopsis, was erected for the reception of certain Abralia-lik^ forms, unique in the 
possession of a conspicuous series of pigmented swellings at the tips of the ventral arms, and further 
distinguished by tlie deep violet color of the buccal membrane, somewhat different structure of the 
tentacle club, bilaterally symmetrical arrangement of the photophores, and the presence of three 
instead of two series of these organs upon the ventral arms. A few years ago Pfeffer, on the supposition 
that the type species of Gray (A. armata Quoy and Gaimard) would be formd congeneric with Abrali- 
opsis, replaced that term hy Abralia and advanced the new name Asteroteuthis for the group thus left 
without a cognomen. More recently, however, he has once more returned to the older and more familiar 
arrangement, for upon examination the type specimen of A . armata proved that species to be after all 
an Asteroieuthis or true Abralia in the accepted sense. 
The position of the Hawaiian species now under consideration is in many respects anomalous. 
Since the tips of the ventral arms are entirely normal, bear suckers at their extremities, and lack all 
indications of terminal pigmented organs, it is most decidedly not an A braliopsis and Pfeffer ’s suggestion 
that the specimen represents a very large Compsoteuthis stage of that genus is quite untenable. This 
is fmrther borne out by the fact that the buccal membrane is not deep violet in color, but pale and dotted 
with chromatophores, while the main features of the armature of the tentacle club are those of a typical 
Abralia. On the other hand no previously described Abralia shows so strikingly symmetrical an arrange- 
ment of the photogenic organs on the mantle, or possesses more than two series of these structures 
on the ventral arms, or has such extremely short and wide fins. In almost every respect, therefore. 
