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SEPIOLIDAE 479
The rather fragile, white shell is a chambered cone coiled in a flat spiral,
usually less than i inch in diameter and with the coils not in contact. Each
small chamber in the shell is divided from its neighbor by a nacreous-white,
Figure 98. The white, inch-long shells (a and b) of Spin/la spirilla Linne are
commonly washed ashore on southern beaches, but the squid-like animal (c) lives
at great depths and is very seldom captured alive.
concave, fragile septum or wall. There is a small siphonal tube running back
into the shell and piercing the septa. These shells are cast up on the beaches
quite commonly. The body is short and cylindrical, and surrounds the shell
almost completely except for two small areas. The 8 sessile arms and 2 pe-
dunculated tentacular arms are very short.
Myopsid Squid— transparent cornea over eyes; pupils crescent-shaped
Family SEPIOLIDAE
Genus Rossia Owen 1828
Short, "tubby" animals whose bodies are rounded at the end. The man-
tle edge is free all around. 8 arms short with 2 to 4 rows of spherical suckers
which have smooth, horny rims. The two tentacular arms can be almost
entirely withdrawn. The internal pen is slender, lanceolate and very thin and
delicate. The rather large, semi-circular fins are on the middle of the sides of
the body. Eye with small eyelid on the lower side, none above. No sulcus
or notch on front of the eye.
Rossia pacifica Berry Pacific Bob-tailed Squid
Alaska to San Diego, California.
Total length, not including the tentacles, 3 to 4 inches. Body smooth,
mantle flattened above and below, rounded behind. Fins large, semi-circular
or subcordate, with a free anterior lobe, their attachment more or less obhque
to the general plane of the body. Color in life unknown; in alcohol, reduced
to brownish buff, heavily spotted above and in less degree below with pur-
plish chromatophore dots, which extend even over the fins, although fewer
on under surfaces and margins. This is the only Rossia recorded on the
Pacific Coast, and it is rather abundant from 9 to 300 fathoms.