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Sthenoteuthis pteropus (Steenstrup, 1855)

Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young
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Containing group: Sthenoteuthis

Characteristics

  1. Arms
    1. Hectocotylus with 22-26 suckers.
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    Figure. Hectocotylus of Sthenoteuthis pteropus. Drawing from Roeleveld (1998).

  2. Tentacles


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    Figure. Oral views of the left and right tentacle bases of S. pteropus showing the relationship between the carpal knobs (colored yellow) and the number of more proximal suckers. Note that the proximal carpal locking-sucker is absent from the tentacle on the right. Drawing modified from Pfeffer (1912).

  3. Funnel/mantle locking-apparatus
    1. Funnel and mantle components not fused.
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      Figure. Frontal views of the funnel (left) and mantle (right) components of the funnel/mantle locking-apparatus of S. pteropus showing the absence of any tearing of the cartilage and therefore an absence of fusion of the two components. Photographs by R. Young.

    3. Photophores

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        Figure. Ventral view of the subcutaneous photophores of S. pteropus. Diagramatic illustration from Roper (1963).

Life History

S. pteropus spawns primarily in specific regions on either side of the tropical Atlantic (Zuev and Nikolsky, 1993).  A detailed study from the tropical Atlantic, found paralarval growth of S. pteropus is comparable to that of O. bartramii (ie, ca 7 mm ML at 30 days????) and proboscis separation in S. pteropus occurred at a ML of 8.5 mm and an age of 33-35 days (Arkhipkin and Mikheev, 1992). In this study, based on statolith examination, they recognized a "dark zone" in the statolith characterized by the lower transparency of the statolith and the width of the increments. They found that this period ended at about 100-110 days at a ML of about 100 mm which they considered to be the end of the juvenile period for S. pteropus.

References

Arkhipkin and Mikheev. 1992.

Pfeffer, G. 1912. Die Cephalopoden der Plankton-Expedition. Ergebniss der Plankton-Expedition der Humboldt-Stiftung. 2: 1-815.

Roeleveld, M. A. 1988. Generic interrelationships within the Ommastrephidae (Cephalopoda). P.277-314. In: M. R. Clarke and E. R. Trueman (eds.). The Mollusca. Vol. 12. Paleontology and Neontology of Cephalopods. Academic Press, N.Y., 355pp. (with permission from Elsevier).

Roper, C. F. E. 1963. Observations in Ommastrephes pteropus (Steenstrup, 1855), with notes on its occurrence in the family Ommastrephidae (Mollusca: Cephalopoda). Bull. Mar. Sc., 13: 343-353.

Zuev and Nikolsky. 1993.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Sthenoteuthis pteropus
Reference Pfeffer, G. 1912. Die Cephalopoden der Plankton-Expedition. Ergebniss der Plankton-Expedition der Humboldt-Stiftung. 2: 1-815.
View Ventral
Size 150 mm ML
About This Page


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


University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

Page: Tree of Life Sthenoteuthis pteropus (Steenstrup, 1855). Authored by Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young. 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:

Vecchione, Michael and Richard E. Young. 2015. Sthenoteuthis pteropus (Steenstrup, 1855). Version 11 October 2015 (temporary). http://tolweb.org/Sthenoteuthis_pteropus/77448/2015.10.11 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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