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Histioteuthis sp. A Young and Vecchione

Richard E. Young and Michael Vecchione
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Containing group: Histioteuthidae

Introduction

This is a rather cyclindrical, muscular histioteuthid that is known only from five squid captured in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands.

Brief diagnosis:

A Histioteuthis ...

Characteristics

  1. Tentacles
    1. Central suckers just slightly enlarged over marginal suckers.
    2. Suckers of ventral-marginal rows of manus with broad, but nearly symmetrical outer rings.
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      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

      Figure. Left - Oral view of a swath across the manus of the club of Histioteuthis sp. A, 41 mm ML, Hawaii. The small suckers on the right are carpal suckers. Right - Oral view of a ventral-marginal sucker of the club, 41 mm ML, Hawaii. Photographs by R. Young.

    3. Medial manal suckers of club with slender teeth only on distal margin of inner ring; proximal margin with small teeth difficult to see under dissecting microscope.
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      Figure. Oral view of large, central manus suckers of the club of Histioteuthis sp. A, 41 mm ML,Hawaii.Photograph by R. Young.

    Scanning electron micrographs of the arms and club suckers can be seen here.

  2. Head
    1. Photophores: Basal Row comprised of 9 photophores, and forms distinct sawtooth at left end.
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      Figure.Ventral view of posterior edge of head of Histioteuthis sp. A showing the Basal Row, 41 mm ML, Hawaii. Photograph by R. Young.

    2. Beaks: Descriptions can be found here: Lower beak; upper beak.

Comments

More details of the description can be found here.

Species of the celetaria-group are characterized by:

  1. Head and arm photophores:
    1. Type 1b pattern on head.
    2. Basal Row of head with 9 or 10 photophores.
    3. Right Basal Series of head absent.
    4. Arms IV with 3 longitudinal series on arm base (drawing below).
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      Figure. Ventral view of arm IV, H. celetaria, 39 mm ML. Drawing from Voss, 1969 (Fig. 15f).

    5. Most species with separate group of 4-8 compound photophores on ends of arms IV (drawing above) (Voss, et al., 1998). Apparently this feature is absent in H. inermis.
    6. Compound photophores of large, uniform size and evenly spaced on anterior 2/3 of ventral mantle.
  2. Tubercles
    1. Absent.

The species differ in the following manner:

Character H. celetaria H. inermis H. pacifica H. sp. A
Club suckers
Asymmetrical outer
sucker rings in:
3 ventral-marginal
sucker series
No asymmetrical rings 2 ventral-marginal
sucker series
No asymmetrical rings
Size of medial
manal suckers:
Slightly larger than
marginal suckers
2 X marginal suckers 1.5 X marginal suckers Slightly larger than
marginal suckers
Large manal-sucker dentition: 12-13 teeth on distal margin 20-27 teeth on entire margin 28-32 teeth on entire margin 15-20 teeth on distal margin
Photophores
Single sawtooth in
Basal Row photophore pattern:
Yes No sawtooth No sawtooth Yes
Number of photophores in Basal Row: 9 10 9 9

With the exception of the analysis of head photophores and the inclusion of H. inermis in this species group, most of the information presented in this table is from Voss (1969) and Voss, et al . (1998)

Life History

Paralarvae and adults are unknown.

Distribution

Type locality: Off leeward coast of Oahu, Hawaii.

References

Voss, N. A. 1969. A monograph of the Cephalopoda of the North Atlantic: The family Histioteuthidae. Bull. Mar. Sci., 19: 713-867.

Voss, N.A., K. N. Nesis, P. G. Rodhouse. 1998. The cephalopod family Histioteuthidae (Oegopsida): Systematics, biology, and biogeography. Smithson. Contr. Zool., 586(2): 293-372.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Histioteuthis sp. A
Comments Ventral view, 25 mm ML, Hawaiian waters, preserved. Photograph.
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © 2003
About This Page
Drawing from Voss (1969) printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.


University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA


National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C. , USA

Page: Tree of Life Histioteuthis sp. A Young and Vecchione. Authored by Richard E. Young and Michael Vecchione. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Young, Richard E. and Michael Vecchione. 2010. Histioteuthis sp. A Young and Vecchione. Version 15 August 2010 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Histioteuthis_sp._A/19797/2010.08.15 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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