Complete

Lycoteuthis lorigera (Steenstrup 1875)

Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young
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Containing group: Lycoteuthis

Introduction

Females of this species are, presently, are nearly indistinguishable from those of L. springeri, except for their heavier musculature and the single large photophore in a pocket in the musculature at the apex of the fins slightly dorsoposteriorly to the convex surface of the conus of the gladius in both sexes of L. springeri but absent in both sexes of L. lorigera.

Characteristics

  1. Head
    1. Beaks: Descriptions can be found here: Lower beak; upper beak.

  2. Mantle
    1. Males lack elongate tail.

  3. Photophores
    1. Posterior abdominal photophores fused into single, broad organ in males.
    2. No large photophore in a pocket in the musculature of the apex of the fins
      slightly dorsoposteriorly to the convex surface of the conus of the gladius in either sex.
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Figure. Ventral view mantle of the mantel of L. lorigera showing arrangement of visceral photophores, male, holotype, 180 mm ML. Drawing from Voss (1962, p. 289).

Comments

Tentacular clubs and club and arm suckers have no known species-specific features.

Note the bright blue, mid-ventral ocular photophore on each eye in one of the title photographs. This blue photophore seems to be typical of members of the Lycoteuthinae. Also red integumental pigment covers (or partly covers due to damage) the other ocular photophores. This pigment would appear to be a color filter that would transmit blue light. Why two different means of producing blue light are needed is unknown

Distribution

The type locality is the "South Sea" in the Pacific Ocean.  Distribution range extends between 23°S and 46°S in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans (Villanueva and Sánchez, 1993).

A trawl that captured a single male off New Zealand also captured 104 females. The trawl was positioned 20-80 m off the bottom in 500 m of water (Försch and Uozumi, 1990).

References

Förch, E. C. and Y. Uozumi. 1990. Discovery of a specimen fo Lycoteuthis lorigera (Steenstrup, 1875) (Cephalopoda: Teuthoidea) from New Zealand and additional notes on its morphology. New Zealand Jour. Mar. Freshw. Res., 24: 251-258.

Toll, R. B. 1983. The lycoteuthid genus Oregoniateuthis Voss, 1956, a synonym of Lycoteuthis Pfeffer, 1900 (Cephalopoda: Teuthoidea). Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 96: 365-369.

Villanueva, R. and P. Sanchez. 1993. Cephalopods of the Benguela Current off Namibia: new additions and considerations on the genus Lycoteuthis. Journal of Natural History, 27:15-46.

Voss, G. L. 1962. A monograph of the Cephalopoda of the North Atlantic. I. The Family Lycoteuthidae. Bull. Mar. Sci. Gulf Carib. 12: 264-305.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Lycoteuthis lorigera
Location South Pacific
Sex Female
View Ventral
Size ca. 115 mm ML
Copyright © 2005 Mark Norman
Scientific Name Lycoteuthis lorigera
Comments Same specimen
Sex Female
View Ventral
Size ca. 115 mm ML
Copyright © 2005 Mark Norman
Scientific Name Lycoteuthis lorigera
Location Sub-Antarctic waters near New Zealand at 51°58'S, 171°40'E
Comments Caught in bottom trawl at 520 m.
Acknowledgements National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
Specimen Condition Fresh
Identified By Darren Stevens
Sex Male
View Ventral
Collector NIWA
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0.
Copyright ©
About This Page
Figure from Voss, 1962 printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.


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


University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

Page: Tree of Life Lycoteuthis lorigera (Steenstrup 1875). 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. Lycoteuthis lorigera (Steenstrup 1875). Version 11 October 2015. http://tolweb.org/Lycoteuthis_lorigera/19738/2015.10.11 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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