Teuthowenia megalops Prosch 1947

Characteristics

1. Mantle
   1. Single-point tubercle, rarely absent, at each funnel-mantle fusion.
      image info

      Tubercle at the funnel-mantle fusion, mature male, 199 mm GL. From Voss, 1985, pp. 17, 18. Printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.

2. Arms
   1. Arms II of males with 2 series of suckers on modified tips (sometimes appearing as 3-4 series due to crowding).
      image info

      Modified tip of arm II which occupies 23-32% of the arm length. Immature male, 184 mm GL. From Voss, 1985, pp. 17, 18. Printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.

   2. Arms II of males with 15-19 pairs of normal suckers proximal to modified tips.
   3. Arms I of males without modified tips.
      image info

      Entire arm I of a mature male (199 mm GL) showing sexual modifications but without modified tip. From Voss, 1985, pp. 17, 18. Printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.

   4. Largest arm III suckers 3 times basal suckers in diameter (at least 2.0-2.8% of GL in diameter).
3. Tentacles
   1. Largest club suckers with 19-24 teeth.
      image info

      Drawing of largest sucker from manus of club, female, 187 mm ML. From Voss, 1985, pp. 17, 18. Printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.

Comments

Additional characteristics can be found here.

Life history

Growth stages

Distribution

Vertical distribution

Lu and Clarke (1975) found the paralarval stages mostly in the upper 200 m.

With one exception at 400m, Voss (1985) found all maturing females and mature and near-mature males at depths of 1000 - 2700 m.

Geographical distribution

T. megalops occupies the productive waters of the subarctic and northern temperate Atlantic Ocean where it lies within the Northern Subpolar-Temperate faunal zone (Voss, 1985).

Geographical distribution map modified from Voss, 1985.

References

Lu, C. C. and M. R. Clarke, 1975. Vertical Distribution of Cephalopods at 40° N, 53°N and 60°N at 20° W in the North Atlantic. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 55 (2): 143-163.

Voss, N. A. 1980. A generic revision of the Cranchiidae (Cephalopoda; Oegopsida). Bull. Mar. Sci. 30: 365-412.

Voss, N. A. 1985. Systematics, biology and biogeography of the cranchiid cephalopod genus Teuthowenia (Oegopsida). Bull. Mar. Sci. 36: 1-85.