Family OCTOPOTEUTHIDAE Berry, 1912

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• OCTOPOTEUTHIDAE Berry 1912. A catalogue of Japanese Cephalopoda. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 64(2): 380-444, 5 pls.

  Type genus:

   Octopoteuthis Rüppell, 1844.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Berry 1912. A catalogue of Japanese Cephalopoda. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 64(2): 380-444, 5 pls.

Introduction

The family Octopoteuthidae Berry, 1912 includes two genera, Octopoteuthis and Taningia, of medium to large squid (up to more than 1000 mm mantle length (ML)) characterised by a broad, straight funnel locking apparatus and very broad fins extending almost the length of the mantle. Seven nominal species of Octopoteuthis and one species of Taningia are known. Species from each genus have been reported from Australia. Species characteristics within the genus Octopoteuthis are poorly defined, however, Kelly (2019) has made great inroads into understanding Octopoteuthidae systematics and has recognised 11 Octopoteuthis and five Taningia species.

The genus Octopoteuthis was first recognised from the south-western Pacific by Rancurel (1970). Nesis (1979) also reported occurrence of Taningia danae in the Australasian region. Clarke (1980) provided further records of octopoteuthids from stomach contents of sperm whales off Albany, Western Australia, and Zeidler (1981) reported large moribund Taningia danae from off South Australia.

Kelly (2019) reports five Octopoteuthis from Australian waters. Octopoteuthis rugosa is found between 23° and 44°S and four undescribed Octopoteuthis: one occuring from southern Tasmania to off eastern New Zealand; another from the Indian Ocean, northwestern Western Australia 11°N–20°S, 54–113°E; a third from eastern Australia from north Queensland to New South Wales and the Central to western Pacific Ocean, from 37°N–34°S, between 134°E and 160±2.5°W, and a fourth from off southern Australia. Two Taningia include T. danae with a cosmopolitan distribution in temperate to tropical waters and an undescribed species from off Tasmania througout the Southern Hemisphere between 30° and 50°S.

Larval Octopoteuthis body proportions change rapidly during growth up to 15 mm ML. Eyes which initially appear stalked become sessile at ML of 10 to 15 mm and most specimens also lose their tentacles by this size (Stephen 1986). The mantle of some Octopoteuthis species has a thick gelatinous layer lying external to the pigmented skin-like layer; it is especially thick over the tail region. Clarke (1980) suggested that the presence of longitudinal grooving in the anterior mantle jelly is characteristic of females in at least one species and that this region is where spermatophores are lodged by the males. Clarke (1967) estimated that a female Taningia of 1400 mm ML carries 250 000 ovarian eggs. Life histories are largely unknown for the family.

Octopoteuthids form a significant component of the sperm whale diet off south-western Australia and in the Tasman Sea (Clarke 1980; Clarke & MacLeod 1982), and are also eaten by lancetfish in the Coral Sea (Rancurel 1970) and oceanic sharks off eastern Australia (Dunning et al. 1993).

From their numerical abundance in individual sperm whale stomachs, Clarke (1980) concluded that Octopoteuthis rugosa Clarke, 1980 is a schooling species, but that Taningia species may be solitary or form small groups only. Ontogenetic descent may occur in Taningia, as small specimens occur in the upper 200 m, and adults are more abundant in depths of more than 1000 m (Clarke 1967). According to Roper & Young (1975), larval Octopoteuthis off California are distributed in a narrow depth band from 200 to 400 m during the day, spreading throughout the upper 500 m at night. However, Stephen (1986) was unable to find conclusive evidence of diel variation in the depth distribution of Octopoteuthis larvae collected primarily from the North Atlantic.

Diagnosis

Octopoteuthids are characterised by a broad, straight funnel locking apparatus and very broad fins extending almost the length of the mantle. The genus Octopoteuthis has biserial hooks on the arms, and sometimes small biserial suckers at their tips. The tentacles in all larvae bear a few distal club suckers which are lost in adults. Buccal connectives attach to the ventral borders of the ventral arms. Several small, spindle-shaped photophores are present on the tips of all eight arms in the genus Octopoteuthis, and a single very large photophore occurs at the tip of each dorso-lateral arm in the monotypic genus Taningia. Hectocotylisation in males is absent.

General References

Clarke, M.R. 1967. A deep sea squid, Taningia danae Joubin, 1931. Symposia of the Zoological Society of London 19: 127-143

Clarke, M.R. 1980. Cephalopoda in the diet of sperm whales of the southern hemisphere and their bearing on sperm whale ecology. Discovery Reports 37: 1-324

Clarke, M.R. & MacLeod, N. 1982. Cephalopod remains from the stomachs of sperm whales caught in the Tasman Sea. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne 43: 25-42

Dunning, M.C., Clarke, M.R. & Lu, C.C. 1993. Cephalopods in the diet of oceanic sharks caught off eastern Australia. pp. 119-131 in Okutani, T., O'Dor, R.K. & Kubodera, T. (eds). Recent Advances in Cephalopod Fisheries Biology. Tokyo : Tokai University Press.

Kelly, J.T. 2019. Systematics of the Octopoteuthidae Berry, 1912 (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida). PhD thesis submitted to the School of Science, Auckland University of Technology. pp. 334

Lu, C.C. & Phillips, J.U. 1985. An annotated checklist of Cephalopoda from Australian waters. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Victoria 2: 21-36

Nesis, K.N. 1979. A brief zoogeographic survey of the pelagic zone around Australia and New Zealand (Cephalopods). Trudy Instituta Okeanologii. Akademiya Nauk SSSR. Moskva 106: 125-139 [in Russian]

Rancurel, P. 1970. Les contenus stomacaux d'Alepisaurus ferox dans le sud-ouest Pacifique (Céphalopodes). Cahiers O.R.S.T.O.M. Serie Océanographique 8(4): 4-87

Roper, C.F.E. & Young, R.E. 1975. Vertical distribution of pelagic cephalopods. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology No. 209: 1-51

Stephen, S.J. 1986. The distribution of larvae of the genus Octopoteuthis Ruppell, 1844 (Cephalopoda, Teuthoidea). Vie et Milieu 35(3/4): 175-179

Zeidler, W. 1981. A giant deep-sea squid, Taningia sp., from South Australian waters. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 105: 218

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