Abralia redfieldi
Kotaro Tsuchiya and Richard E. YoungIntroduction
A. redfieldi is widely distributed in the Atlantic Ocean. This species is very similar to the Pacific species A. similis, but separable by the larger numbers of arm hooks (13-16 vs. 6-12 in A. similis).
Characteristics
- Tentacle clubs
- Hectocotylus
- Right ventral arm of male hectocotylized.
- Hectocotylus with very large bilobed flap, distal to arm hooks, on ventral margin and small, more distal flap on dorsal margin.
- Eye Photophores
- Five, silvery organs.
- Integumental Photophores
- Ventral mantle and head with scattered arrangement of integumental organs.
- Ventral mantle and head with scattered arrangement of integumental organs.
- Epidermis
- Thick, fragile, and gelatinous.
Comments
A. redfieldi is related with A. similis, and A. omiae in their:- Five monotypic, silvery eye photophores.
- Large, bilobed proximal flap of hectocotylus.
- Small size and thick, gelatinous epidermis.
A. grimpei also resembles the above species but has more than 5 eye photophores.
A. redfieldi | A. grimpei | A. similis | A.omiae | |
Lateral head photophore series | complete (ususally | Complete | Incomplete | incomplete |
Club hooks | 2-3 | 2 | 2 | 1-2 |
Arm II photophores | 1 | 1 | ||
Hooks on hectocotylus | 6-8 | |||
Photophores on mantle | Clear strip, two bands (often) | Clear strip, two bands | Scattered | Clear strip, two bands |
Eye photophores | 5, sometimes 6 | >5 | 5 | 5 |
mid-head photophores | i series |
Distribution
Vertical distribution
One specimen was caught during night by midwater tow at a depth of 100-50m at 10° N, 20° W (Lu & Clarke, 1975)Geographical distribution
Type locality: Off Gun Cay, Bahamas (western North Atlantic).
This species is widely distributed from Nova Scotia (43°N to Argentina (45°S) in the western Atlantic (Nesis, 1982/87) and in the eastern Atlantic it has been taken tropical waters Africa (Lu and Clarke, 1975) and off South Africa at 45°S, 54°W (Lipinski, 1983).
References
Lipinski, M. 1983. A description of a new species of enoploteuthid cephalopod, Abralia siedleckyi spec. nov., with some remarks on Abralia redfieldi G. Voss, 1955. Veliger, 25(3):255-265.
Lu, C. C. and M. R. Clarke, 1975. Vertical Distribution of cephalopods at 11? N 20? W in the North Atlantic. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 55 (2): 369-389.
Tsuchiya, K. 2000. Illustrated book of the Enoploteuthidae. In: Okutani T., ed. True face of Watasenia scintillans. Tokai University Press, Tokyo, p 196?269. (in Japanese)
Voss, G.L. 1955. The Cephalopoda Obtained by the Harvard-Havana Expedition off the Coast of Cuba in 1938-39. Bulletin of Marine Science of the Gulf and Caribbean, 5(2):81-115.
About This Page
Drawings from Voss (1955) and Cairns (1976) printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.
Tokyo University of Fisheries, Tokyo, Japan
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA
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- Content changed 03 November 2013
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Tsuchiya, Kotaro and Richard E. Young. 2013. Abralia redfieldi http://tolweb.org/Abralia_redfieldi/19661/2013.11.03 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
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