H 365 } A3 15 opy 1 [EXTRACTED FRE IM SECTION ONE OF THE FISHERIES AND FISHERY INDUSTRIES THE UNILED STATES. Pages Plates 250-259 NATURAL HISTORY OF ECONOMIC MOLLUSKS OF THE UNITED: STATES. BY ERNEST INGERSOLL and JOHN A. RYDER. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1893. ( 4 ‘ ee Ve u 7 1 "it 7 1 1 A i) if 1 , i 1 . : pore i x 4 (yn Ie ao i} i # 14 ' - ‘ s i i, ¥ A . ’ ; \ i ' Y WV 4 i - t . xs wt ‘- D \ ~ . ‘ i 1 : By tranrfer AUG 21 1900 1 T° ? a a ar * i 5 : = ; ' : - ' i a : \ - CUTTLES, SNAILS, BIVALVES, ETO. By Ernest INGERSOLL. 205. THE CUTTLES—CEPHALOPODA. The mollusks called “ Cuttles” or “‘Cuttle-fishes” bear a very important relation to the fisheries and consequently to the food supply of the United States. It has recently been ascertained that some of these Cuttle-fishes attain huge bulk and corresponding abilities for destruction. The two species of Architeuthis (A. princeps and A. Harvey?), roaming through the North Atlantic and now and then stranded upon the beaches of Newfoundland, have each a total length of from thirty to fifty feet, and a weight of solid flesh amounting to thousands of pounds. “The Cuttles,” says Dr. Philip Carpenter, ‘have very acute senses. They have an approach to a brain, inclosed in a cartilaginous skull. They can hear sounds, and evidently enjoy the taste of their food. They have a large, fleshy tongue, armed with recurved prickles, like that of the lion. They either crawl on their head tail upwards, or swim, tail foremost, by striking with their arms, or squirt themselves backwards by forcing water forward through their breathing funnels. “They are ferocious creatures, the tyrants of the lower orders, and do not scruple to attack and devour even fishes. The larger kinds are deservedly dreaded by man. Their weapons con- sist in their powerful arms, which are abundantly furnished with rows of cup-like suckers, each of which fastens on its prey or its foe like a limpet to the rock. Often these are accompanied with sharp-curved teeth, strong enough to be preserved even in fossil species.” The giant Cuttle-fishes of the north (Architeuthis) and the commoner Squids and Calamaries of our Atlantic coast belong to the ten-armed division of the order termed Decapods. The three smaller species ordinarily met with are Loligo Pealei, Loligo Pealet var. pallida, and Ommastrephes illecebrosus. On the extreme southern coast they are replaced by an Octopod (Octopus granulatus). Of these four, Loligo Pealei is the common Squid of Long Island Sound and southward, and when full grown it is more than a foot in length. The color when living is very changeable, owing to the alternate contractions of the color-vesicles or spots, but red and brown predominate, so as to give a general purplish-brewn color. An allied variety or subspecies, named pallida, is a “pale, translucent, gelatinous-looking” creature, with few spots on the back and nearly white beneath. Commonly five or six inches long, exclusive of the arms, it frequently grows much larger, and is of broader and stouter proportions than the type-form, from which it is further distin- guished by its broader caudal fin and the larger size of its suckers. It belongs especially to the western end of Long Island Sound, ‘“‘ where it is abundant with the schools of menhaden, on which it feeds.” “This species,” writes Verrill,! “is found along the whole coast from South Carolina to Massa- chusetts Bay. “Tt is the Common Squid from Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod. In Long Island Sound and Vineyard Sound it is very abundant, and is taken in large numbers in the fish-pounds and seines, and used to a large extent for bait. It is comparatively scarce, though not rare, north of Cape Cod. The young were trawled by us in many localities in Massachusetts Bay in 1878. Large specimens were taken in the pounds at Provincetown, Massachusetts, August, 1879. It was taken in considerable 5 1 Report U. S. Fish Commission, part vii, 1882, p. 355. ; 687 688 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. quantities, in breeding condition, in the fish-pounds at Cape Ann, near Gloucester, Massachusetts, May, 1880 (var. borealis). It has not been observed north of Cape Ann. Its southern limit is not known to me, but it appears to have been found on the coast of South Carolina. “Tn depth, it has occurred from low-water mark to fifty fathoms. The eggs’ have often been taken by us in the trawl, m great abundance, at many localities along the southern shores of New England, in five to twenty-five fathoms. “Tt is known to be a very important element in the food supply of the bluefish, tautog, sea- bass, striped bass, weakfish, king-fish, and many other of our larger market fishes. “Tn the Gulf of Mexico this species appears to be replaced by another species (Loligo Gahi D’Orbigny). Of this we have several specimens, collected on the west coast of Florida, at Egmont Key, near Tampa Bay, by Col. E. Jewett and Mr. W. T. Coons. This species is closely allied to L. Pealei, but has a more slender form, with the caudal fin shorter and narrower in proportion to the length of the mantle. The pen has a shorter and broader shaft, and a narrower and more oblong blade, which has parallel, thickened, and darker-colored portions between the midrib and margins. The tentacular suckers have their horny rings more coarsely and equally toothed, there being only a partial alternation of larger and smaller teeth. “ Along our southern coast, from Delaware Bay to Florida, a much shorter and relatively stouter species (oligo brevis Blainy.) occurs, which might be mistaken by a careless observer for the present species. In addition to its shorter body, it has very different large, tentacular suckers, with the teeth on the horny rim coarser and all of similar form and size. Its pen is also shorter and relatively broader, and different in structure.” “T am not aware,” he says elsewhere,? “that any definite information has hitherto been published as to the rate of growth or length of life of any of our cephalopods. By some writers it has been stated that the Squids are all annual, but this seems to be a mere assumption, without any evidence for its basis. Therefore I have for several years past preserved large numbers of specimens of the young of Loligo Pealei, collected at different seasons and localities, in order to ascertain, if possible, the rate of growth and the size acquired during the first season, at least. One of the following tables (1) shows some of the data thus obtained.? “There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the age of these Squids, owing to the fact that the spawning season extends through the whole summer, so that the young ones hatched early in June are as large by September as those that hatch in September are in the following spring. Owing to the same cause, most of the large lots of young Squids taken mm midsummer include various sizes, from those just hatched up to those that are two or three inches long. They are often mixed with some of those of the previous year, considerably larger than the rest. Earlier in the season (in May and the first part of June), before the first-laid eggs begin to hatch, the youngest specimens taken (60™™ to 100™™ long) are presumed to belong to the later broods of the previous autumn, while those somewhat larger are believed to be from earlier broods of the previous summer, and to represent the growth of one year very nearly. “Taking these principles as a guide, I have arrived at the following conclusions from the data collected : SO Pele young Squids begin to hatch at least as early as the second week in June, on the 1TIn early summer this Squid resorts to gravelly and weedy bottoms : to lay its eggs. They are e contained i in punches or clusters, sometimes six or eight inches in diameter, consisting of hundreds of gelatinous capsules each holding numerous eggs. These clusters are attached to some fixed object, and the oysters upon planted beds offer conveniences which the Squid is very likely to adopt. This occurrence seems to be a source of decided harm in Delaware Bay, for the oystermen there assert that the larger “‘sea-grapes’’ (as they call the egg-bunches) lift many oysters from the bottom by their buoyancy and float them off in stormy weather.—E. I. 2 Report U. 8. Fish Commission, part vii, 1882, p pp. 353~355. 3See the original article. RATE OF GROWTH OF YOUNG SQUIDS. 689 southern coast of New England, and continue to hatch till the middle of September, and perhaps later. “2. By the second week in July, the first hatched of the June Squids have grown to the size in which the body (or mantle) is 30™ to 48™™ long; but these are associated with others that are younger, of all sizes down to those just hatched. They begin to show a disposition to go in ‘schools’ composed of individuals of somewhat similar sizes. “3. By the second week in Angust, the largest June Squids have become 50™™ to 68™™ in length of body, and the later broods are 5™™ to 50" long. As before, with these sizes occur others of all ages down to those just hatched. It should be observed, however, that in those of our tabulated lots taken by the trawl the very small sizes are absent, because they pass freely through the coarse meshes of the net. ; “4, By the second week in September, the June Squids have the mantle 60™™ to 82™™ long. All the grades of smaller ones still abound.