Tell me, O Octopus, I begs, Is those things arms, or is they legs? I marvel at thee, Octopus; If I were thou, I'd call me us. -- Ogden Nash
Already in 1882, Dunker in his _Index Molluscorum Maris Japonici_ enumerated nearly 1200 species of marine molluscs found in the Japanese archipelago, and several others have since then been added to the list. As for the land and fresh-water molluscs, some 200 of which are known, they are mainly kindred with those of China and Siberia, tropical and Indian forms being exceptional. There are 57 species of _Helix_ (_maimaitsuburi_, _dedemushi_, _katatsumuri_ or _kwagyu_) and 25 of Clausilia (_kiseru-gai_ or pipe-snail), including the two largest snails in Japan, namely the _Cl. Martensi_ and the _Cl. Yoko-hamensis_, which attain to a length of 58 mm. and 44 mm. respectively. The mussel (_i-no-kai_) is well represented by the species _numa-gai_ (marsh-mussel), _karasu-gai_ (raven-mussel), _kamisori-gai_ (razor-mussel), _shijimi-no-kai_ (_Corbicula_), of which there are nine species, &c. Unlike the land-molluscs, the great majority of Japanese sea-molluscs are akin to those of the Indian Ocean and the Malay archipelago. Some of them extend westward as far as the Red Sea. The best known and most frequent forms are the _asari_ (_Tapes philippinarum_), the _hamaguri_ (_Meretrix lusoria_), the _baka_ (_Mactra sulcataria_), the _aka-gai_ (_Scapharca inflata_), the _kaki_ (oyster), the _awabi_ (_Haliotis japonica_), the _sazae_ (_Turbo cornutus_), the _hora-gai_ (_Tritonium tritonius_), &c. Among the cephalopods several are of great value as articles of food, e.g. the _surume_ (_Onychotheuthis Banksii_), the _tako_ (octopus), the _shidako_ (Eledone), the _ika_ (Sepia) and the _tako-fune_ (Argonauta). Entry: F
BEAK (early forms _beke_ and _becke_, from Fr. _bec_, late Lat. _beccus_, supposed to be a Gaulish word; the Celtic _bec_ and _beq_, however, are taken from the English), the horny bill of a bird, and so used of the horny ends of the mandibles of the octopus, the duck-billed platypus and other animals; hence the rostrum (q.v.) or ornamented prow of ancient war vessels. The term is also applied, in classic architecture, to the pendent fillet on the edge of the corona of a cornice, which serves as a drip, and prevents the rain from flowing inwards. Entry: BEAK
CUTTLE-FISH. The more familiar and conspicuous types of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (q.v.) are popularly known in English as cuttle-fish, squid, octopus and nautilus. The first of these names (from the A.S. _cudele_) is applied more particularly to the common _Sepia_ (fig. 1), characterized by its internal calcareous shell, sometimes known as cuttle-bone, and its ink-sac, the contents of which have been long in use as a pigment (sepia). The term squid is employed among fishermen for the ten-armed Cephalopods in which the shell is represented by an uncalcified flexible structure somewhat resembling a pen. Hence in Italian a squid is called _calamaio_, from _calamus_ a reed or pen, and in English the similar term calamary is sometimes used. Like the _Sepia_, squids also possess the ink-sac, whence they have sometimes been called pen and ink fish, and in German both _Sepia_ and squid and their allies are known as _Tinten-fische_. The squids have generally softer and more watery tissues than the _Sepia_, but the former term is not in general use, and the distinction not generally understood. The term cuttle-fishes is sometimes extended to include all the Cephalopoda, but as the peculiarities of the remarkable shell of the true nautilus, and those of the shell-less Octopoda are widely known, we shall consider the name here as applying only to those forms which have ten arms, an ink-sac, an internal shell-rudiment, and only one pair of gills in the mantle cavity. Technically these form the sub-order Decapoda, of the order Dibranchia. Entry: CUTTLE
In variety, in this connexion, the Mollusca must perhaps be given the first place. This diversity, indeed, is strikingly illustrated by the eggs of the Cephalopoda. In the squids (_Loligo_), for example, the eggs are enclosed in long cylindrical cases, of which there are several hundreds, attached by one end to a common centre; the whole series looking strangely like a rough mop-head. Each case, in such a cluster, contains about 250 eggs, or about 40,000 in all. By way of contrast the eggs of the true cuttle-fish (_Sepia_) are deposited separately, each enclosed in a tough, black, pear-shaped capsule which is fastened by a stalk to fronds of sea-weed or other object. They appear to be extruded at short intervals, till the full complement is laid, the whole forming a cluster looking like a bunch of grapes. The octopus differs yet again in this matter, its eggs being very small, berry-like, and attached to a stalk which runs through the centre of the mass. Entry: EGG
Year Name James Bond Book ---- -------------------------------- -------------- ---- 50's James Bond TV Series Barry Nelson 1962 Dr. No Sean Connery 1958 1963 From Russia With Love Sean Connery 1957 1964 Goldfinger Sean Connery 1959 1965 Thunderball Sean Connery 1961 1967* Casino Royale David Niven 1954 1967 You Only Live Twice Sean Connery 1964 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service George Lazenby 1963 1971 Diamonds Are Forever Sean Connery 1956 1973 Live And Let Die Roger Moore 1955 1974 The Man With The Golden Gun Roger Moore 1965 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me Roger Moore 1962 (novelette) 1979 Moonraker Roger Moore 1955 1981 For Your Eyes Only Roger Moore 1960 (novelette) 1983 Octopussy Roger Moore 1965 1983* Never Say Never Again Sean Connery 1985 A View To A Kill Roger Moore 1960 (novelette) 1987 The Living Daylights Timothy Dalton 1965 (novelette) * -- Not a Broccoli production.
_Head, Foot, Mantle and Mantle-cavity._--If we now compare the fore-foot of the Dibranchiata with that of _Nautilus_, we find in the first place a more simple arrangement of its lobes, which are either four or five pairs of tapering processes (called "arms"), arranged in a series around the buccal cone, and a substitution of suckers for tentacles on the surface of these lobes (figs. 15 and 24). The most dorsally placed pair of arms, corresponding to the two sides of the hood of _Nautilus_, are in reality the most anterior, and are termed the first pair. In the Octopoda there are four pairs of these arms (fig. 38), in the Decapoda five pairs, of which the fourth is greatly elongated (figs. 15, 16). In _Sepia_, _Sepiola_ and _Rossia_, each of these long arms is withdrawn into a pouch beside the head, and is only ejected for the purpose of prehension. In _Loligo_ they are completely retractile, very slightly so in the majority of the Oigopsida, and in _Rhynchoteuthis_ they are united to form a beak-like appendage. A gradual reduction of the tentacular arms can be seen in the Decapoda, leading to their total absence in Octopoda; thus in _Leachia_, _Chaunoteuthis_ and others these arms are reduced to mere stumps. In some _Cheiroteuthidae_ and _Cranchiidae_ the ordinary or sessile arms, especially the dorsal pairs, are reduced. In the Octopoda they are not unfrequently connected by a web, and form an efficient swimming-bell, e.g. in _Cirrhoteuthidae_ and _Amphuretidae_. The suckers are placed on the adoral surface of the arms, and may be in one, two or four rows, and very numerous. In place of suckers in some genera, e.g. _Veranya_, we find on certain arms or parts of the arms horny hooks; in other cases a hook rises from the centre of each sucker. The hooks on the long arms of _Onychoteuthis_ are drawn in fig. 23. In various species of _Cheiroteuthis_ the suckers on the tentacular arms are very feeble, but the bottom of the cup is covered by a number of anastomosed epithelial filaments which are used as a fishing-net. The fore-foot, with its apparatus of suckers and hooks, is in the Dibranchiata essentially a prehensile apparatus, though the whole series of arms in the Octopoda serve as swimming organs, and in many (e.g. the common octopus or poulp) the sucker-bearing surface is used as a crawling organ. Entry: B