File:The royal natural history (1893) (14594799778).jpg

Identifier: royalnaturalhist612lyde (find matches)
Title: The royal natural history
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915 Sclater, Philip Lutley, 1829-1913 Frostick, W. B., former owner. DSI Brooks, W. T., former owner. DSI
Subjects: Zoology Natural history
Publisher: London and New York : Frederick Warne & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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body of the parent. The shell thereforeserves, not only as a retreat for the argonaut herself, but also as a nest for the eggs,and possibly as a nursery for the young. Very little is known with regard to thefood of the argonaut. As its habits are very similar to those of the octopus, itseems probable that it may feed upon molluscs and crustaceans, which it mightcapture when crawling at the bottom of the sea. A captive specimen was fed withsmall live fish, which it ate with avidity. About eight species are recognised,which have a world-wide distribution, occurring in all tropical and warm latitudes.The shells of the different species are all of a white colour, and exhibit two distincttypes of surface ornamentation, the one consisting of simple, smooth, radiatingwavy ribs, the other in which these ribs are more or less broken up into nodules or CEPHALOPODS. 33, tubercles. Argonauta Mans is the typical species of the former group, and A.navicula and A. tuberculoid, represent the latter.
Text Appearing After Image:
r w*. A, Male argonaut (twice nat. size), with hectocotylus enclosed in the sack ; B, male argonaut, with HECTOCOTYLUS FURTHER DEVELOPED. Suborder Decapoda. The Decapods form the second division of the two-gilled order, and differ fromthe Octopods, as the name implies, by the possession of ten, instead of eight, arms.The two additional arms differ from the rest in their greater length, and in havingsuckers only at the extremity. They are frequently completely retractile withinpouches, and are used as prehensile organs in the capture of their prey. Alldecapods are provided with an internal shell. That of the living species is eitherhorny—the so-called pen (gladius); or else calcareous—the bone.(sepion) of thecuttle-fish. In Spirilla the shell takes the form of a tube, beautifully coiled, anddivided off into numerous air-chambers by a series of septa or partitions. The armsof the decapods are furnished with pedunculated suckers, armed with horny ringsor hooks. The head is invariably

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