348 
bulletin of the bureau of fisheries. 
In all other respects the Hawaiian form is essentially similar to L. reinhardtii except that (i) the 
number of cartilaginous tubercles in the dorsal series is somewhat less than given by LQnnberg for 
the specimen described by him, although more numerous in the ventral series; (2) the fins are conspic- 
uously smaller; and (3) according to Pfeffer the statement that the latter are “flanked near the anterior 
end by parallel rows of two or three smaller tubercles on either side ’ ’ does not hold with respect to 
the older species. 
Genus MEGALOCRANCHIA Pfeffer 1884. 
Megalocranchia Pfeffer 1884, p. 24. 
Desmoteutkis Pfeffer 1900, p. 191 (not of Verrill 1881). 
Desmoieutkis Chun 1906, p. 85. 
Desnwteuihis Chun 1910, p. 304, 356. 
Megalocranchia Pfeffer 1912, p. 645, 711. 
Megalocranchia Berry 1912c, p. 644 
Body cask-shaped, membranous, transparent, very weakly pigmented. Fins oval, longer than 
broad, overreaching the extremity of the body. Eyes large, rotund, protruding, sessile; on the ventral 
sinface of each a very large semicircular photogenic organ, with a smaller crescent-shaped organ just 
in front. Arms with two rows of suckers; tentacles with four rows of suckers which extend along the 
greater portion of the stalk; none of the suckers modified into hooks; no fixing apparatus. Photogenic 
organs wanting except on the eye as stated. 
Type. — Megalocranchia maxima Pfeffer 1884 (monotypic); described from the Cape of Good Hope. 
Megalocranchia fisheri (Berry 1909) Pfeffer 1912. (PI. liii, fig. 5, 6; pi. lv, fig. 2.) 
Helicocranchia fisheri Berry igog, p. 417. 
Xenoteuthis fisheri Berry 1909, p. 419 (error). 
Megalocranchia fisheri Pfeffer igi2,p. 718. 
Megalocranchia fisheri Berry 1912c, p. 644. 
Animal small, body somewhat barrel-shaped. Mantle smooth, tough, membranous, saccular, thin, 
very much inflated; largest at a point nearly midway between the head and fins; somewhat tapering 
anteriorly and to a greater degree posteriorly, where it becomes at last suddenly constricted, termi- 
nating in a short, slender, spitlike point extending between the fins and serving as their base of attach- 
ment; maximum width of mantle probably about half its length.® 
Fins rather small, thin; each semicircular, almost exactly half as wide as long, and a little over 
a quarter the length of the mantle; almost continuous posteriorly and separated along the median line 
only by the thread of integument covering the slender hinder extremity of the gladius. 
Head very short and broad; slightly concave above and below; relatively very large, due to the 
enormous globular eyes which are only faintly constricted at the base; lid openings very small, puck- 
ered, so elevated as to appear almost papilliform. Mantle attached firmly to the head in the nuchal 
region and also to the base of the funnel on either side. Furmel large, thin-walled, conical, broad at 
the base; extremity not quite reaching the base of the ventral arms; apertme ample, with a caplike 
upper lip. Funnel organ difiBcult to distinguish with certainty. 
Arms short, robust, fleshy, the longest less than one-third the length of the mantle; imequal, the 
order of length 3=4, 2, i; umbrella wanting; all the arms outwardly keeled and provided with a very 
delicate trabeculated marginal membrane, which attains by far its best development on the arms of 
the third pair; the latter in every way larger than the others and with larger suckers. Suckers biserial, 
closely placed, regularly alternating to the tip; oblique, hood-shaped; apertures wide; horny rings (at 
least on third arms) scarcely dentate, but very minutely and beautifully crenulate on the upper border, 
nearly smooth below. 
o The mantle is much wrinkled and contracted in this specimen, especially ventrally (where the distance from the tip of 
the body to the mantle margin is much less than it is dorsally), thus precluding the possibility of accurate measurement or exact 
statement of relative proportions. This condition is probably wholly due to the action of the preserving fluid. 
