[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 14th December, 1883.]

After heavy north-east gales molluscs of this class are not infrequently cast ashore between Stoke and Richmond, and during the fishing season great numbers are caught by the fishermen inside the Boulder Bank; but, except they are almost immediately secured, they are soon shrivelled up and beyond identification. In the present instance the specimen before you, which is a male Octopus, was captured near the Marine Baths, at the “Port,” in some four feet of water, and I was fortunate enough to obtain it in a very fine state of preservation.

In general outline it somewhat resembles Octopus tuberculatus, but the arms are more slender and tapering and very much larger than in that species.

Class Cephalopoda.
Family Octopodidæ

Octopus communis, sp. nov.

Body oval, stout, fan-shaped behind, smooth, without fins. Head large, long, rounded. Eyes large, round, prominent. Arms long, tapering, unequal; dorsal pair ⅓ longer than ventral pair. The hectocotylus is shorter and more robust than the other arms, ending abruptly in a long, flattened process with a deep longitudinal groove. Suckers in two rows, not opposite,