Chiroteuthis veranyi from the Atlantic sector of the southern ocean (cephalopoda: Chiroteuthidae)

• Main Authors: PG Rodhouse, CC Lu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: African Journal of Marine Science 2011
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://ajol.info/index.php/ajms/article/view/66463

Chiroteuthis veranyi (Férussac, 1835) (Cephalopoda: Chiroteuthidae) from South Georgia is described from material collected during the British Antarctic Survey’s Offshore Biological Programme. The material closely resembles C. veranyi from elsewhere and, in common with C. lacertosa, C. imperator and C. calyx, has two round photophores, one on each side of the ink sac. It also resembles C. lacertosa and C. calyx in the structure of the stalks of the club suckers, which consist of two portions: a broad cylindical basal portionterminates in a dark purple pleated “skirt” from which arises a slender, sucker-bearing distal portion. The Antarctic material has tentacular club suckers which possess, on the distal half of the ring, a prominent centralrecurved median tooth flanked by two triangular teeth on each side. The proximal half of the ring is smooth. The proximity of the location where the specimens were collected to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current suggeststhat the species may be widely distributed in the Southern Ocean.