Oh my goodness! Unless you are a Tree of Life developer,
you really shouldn't be here. This page is part of our beta test site, where we
develop new features for the ToL, often messing up a thing or two in the
process. Please visit the official version of this page, which is available
here.
Description of the Holotype of Chiroteuthis spoeli
Richard E. Young and Clyde F. E. Roper

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
- Photophores
- Eyeball- Two series: lateral series (7 organs) = 1+5+1; medial series (seven organs) = 1+5+1.
- Viscera: two large organs.
- Pigmentation
- Club sucker stalks with epithelial pigmentation and strongly pleated.
- Buccal membrane unpigmented.
- Arms
- Largest arm III suckers with 8-14 broad, rounded teeth, fused laterally; more distal suckers with thin blunt teeth; more proximal suckers with broader, rounded teeth.
- Largest suckers globular.
- Tentacular clubs
- Suckers with 5-7 pointed teeth over distal half of ring; no enlarged central tooth.
- Sucker stalks- two distinct parts; stalks of lateral and medial suckers about equal in length.
- Protective membranes
- Membranes in three distinctive sets with intermediate set broadest.
- Proximal set with ca. 18-19 slender, separate trabeculae (about 25% of club length).
- Intermediate set without distinct trabeculae (forms fleshy membrane) but opposite ca. 16 rows of suckers (about 35% of CL).
- Distal set with slender, separate, trabeculae opposite 23 rows of suckers (about 35% of CL).
Comments
The holotype has an unusually small aperature of the globular arm suckers.
More details of the description of the C. spoeli holotype is found here.
Distribution
The type locality is the Somali Basin in the far western Indian Ocean. The only two known specimens, immature females, were captured at depths of 540-860 m and 400-600 m.
References
Salcedo-Vargas, M. A. 1996. Cephalopods from the Netherlands Indian Ocean Programme (NIOP) - I. Chiroteuthis spoeli, n. spec. and Chiroteuthis picteti somaliensis n. subspec. Beaufortia, 46: 11-26.
About This Page
Illustrations
C. spoeli from Salcedo-Vargas, 1996, with permission.
Other drawings
Large arm III sucker, from Salcedo-Vargas, 1996.
Richard E. Young
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA
Clyde F. E. Roper
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., USA
Page copyright © 1997
Richard E. Young
and
Clyde F. E. Roper
Page: Tree of Life
Description of the Holotype of Chiroteuthis spoeli
Authored by
Richard E. Young and Clyde F. E. Roper.
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.