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Opisthoteuthis depressa Ijima and Ikeda 1895

Richard E. Young and Michael Vecchione
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Containing group: Opisthoteuthis

Introduction

Opisthoteuthis depressa is known only from waters off Japan. It reaches a size (measured from arm tip to arm tip) of just over 200 mm. Males have a distinctive arrangement of enlarged suckers.

Characteristics

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Figure. Oral view of male O. depressa. Drawing from Sasaki, 1929.

  1. Arms and web
    1. Arms subequal.
    2. Web extends nearly to arm tips along dorsal margins of arms but web along ventral margins terminates well proximally.
    3. Suckers in female: very small, largest ca. 2 mm in diameter; number just over 50 on each arm; suckers uniform size over most of arm, decreasing in size proximally and distally.
    4. Suckers in males: greatly enlarged and crowded into biserial or triserial arrangement from sucker 5-20; maximum sucker size - 7 mm in diameter in adults.
    5. First cirri between suckers 1 and 2.

Comments

The above description is taken from Sasaki, 1929. More details of the description of O. depressa can be found here.

O. depressa differs from all members of the genus (where males are known), except O. mero and O. robsoni, in lacking distal fields or at least lacking an increase in sucker size in the distal fields. O. depressa differs from the other two in having more enlarged suckers on each arm of the proximal field (i.e., 16 vs 5-8).

Distribution

Japanese waters. 130-1100 m (Nesis, 1982/87).

References

Nesis, K. N. 1982/87. Abridged key to the cephalopod mollusks of the world's ocean. 385+ii pp. Light and Food Industry Publishing House, Moscow. (In Russian.). Translated into English by B. S. Levitov, ed. by L. A. Burgess (1987), Cephalopods of the world. T. F. H. Publications, Neptune City, NJ, 351pp.

Sasaki, M. 1929. A monograph of the dibranchiate cephalopods of the Japanese and adjacent waters. Journal of the College of Agriculture, Hokkaido Imperial University, 20(Supplementary number):1-357.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Opisthoteuthis depressa
Reference Sasaki, M. 1929. A monograph of the dibranchiate cephalopods of the Japanese and adjacent waters. Journal of the College of Agriculture, Hokkaido Imperial University, 20(Supplementary number):1-357.
Sex Female
View Aboral
Size ca. 135 mm max. width
About This Page


University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA


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

Page: Tree of Life Opisthoteuthis depressa Ijima and Ikeda 1895. 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. 2003. Opisthoteuthis depressa Ijima and Ikeda 1895. Version 13 May 2003 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Opisthoteuthis_depressa/20157/2003.05.13 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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