Teuthowenia megalops
Richard E. Young and Katharina M. Mangold (1922-2003)Characteristics
- Mantle
- Single-point tubercle, rarely absent, at each funnel-mantle fusion.
- Arms
- Arms II of males with 2 series of suckers on modified tips (sometimes appearing as 3-4 series due to crowding).
- Arms II of males with 15-19 pairs of normal suckers proximal to modified tips.
- Arms I of males without modified tips.
- Largest arm III suckers 3 times basal suckers in diameter (at least 2.0-2.8% of GL in diameter).
- Tentacles
- Largest club suckers with 19-24 teeth.
Comments
Additional details of the description of T. megalops can be found here.
Life history
The paralarval period ends when the eyes become sessile between sizes of 75 and 95 mm GL. Paralarvae have relatively large, oval and widely spaced chromatophores on the mantle. The tubercle first appears at the funnel-mantle fusion at a size between 30 and 60 mm GL (Voss, 1985).
Figure. T. megalops growth stages. Left - Two views of a paralarva photographed in a shipboard aquarium: side view, and an anterior view with the head and arms withdrawn into the mantle cavity. Also, in the latter photograph the squid had released ink into the mantle cavity. © . Right - (left to right): 11 mm ML, 29 mm ML, 60 mm ML. Drawings from Voss, 1985, p. 22.
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).
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.
About This Page
Drawings from Voss (1985) printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.
Richard E. Young
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA
Katharina M. Mangold (1922-2003)
Laboratoire Arago, Banyuls-Sur-Mer, France
Page copyright © 1999 Richard E. Young and Katharina M. Mangold (1922-2003)
All Rights Reserved.
- Content changed 29 November 2007
Citing this page:
Young, Richard E. and Mangold (1922-2003), Katharina M. 2007. Teuthowenia megalops http://tolweb.org/Teuthowenia_megalops/19613/2007.11.29 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
. Version 29 November 2007.- View previous versions of this page
- Teuthowenia megalops Version 01 January 1999 (complete) see full version history