Under Construction

Lolliguncula Steenstrup, 1881

Brief squids

Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Loliguncula contains four species placed in two subgenera.
taxon links [up-->]Lolliguncula (Lolliguncula) brevis [down<--]Loliginidae Interpreting the tree
close box

This tree diagram shows the relationships between several groups of organisms.

The root of the current tree connects the organisms featured in this tree to their containing group and the rest of the Tree of Life. The basal branching point in the tree represents the ancestor of the other groups in the tree. This ancestor diversified over time into several descendent subgroups, which are represented as internal nodes and terminal taxa to the right.

example of a tree diagram

You can click on the root to travel down the Tree of Life all the way to the root of all Life, and you can click on the names of descendent subgroups to travel up the Tree of Life all the way to individual species.

For more information on ToL tree formatting, please see Interpreting the Tree or Classification. To learn more about phylogenetic trees, please visit our Phylogenetic Biology pages.

close box
Type species.--Loligo brevis Blainville, 1823, by original designation.
Containing group: Loliginidae

Introduction

Species of Lolliguncula are rather small squids that generally occupy warm, shallow waters and some invade regions of low salinity.

Brief diagnosis:

A loliginid ...

Characteristics

  1. Arms
    1. Sucker rings with square teeth on distal or entire margin.
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

      Figure. Oral view of arm III sucker of L. argus, male, 30 mm ML. Drawing from Brakoniecki and Roper (1985).

    2. Suckers on mid-sections of lateral arms of males not greatly enlarged.
    3. Hectocotylus:
      1. Ventral crest absent.
      2. Unmodified proximal region of hectocotylus present (in subgenus Lolliguncula) or absent (in subgenus Loliolopsis).
      3. Suckers of modified region reduced, sucker stalks elongated to form papillae on either dorsal or both dorsal and ventral rows.

  2. Tentacles
    1. Tentacular clubs expanded, suckers in four series.

  3. Mantle
    1. Mantle posteriorly rounded; posterior tail-like elongation absent.

  4. Fins
    1. Fins posterior, broadly rounded posteriorly.
    2. Fins wider than long in adults.

  5. Photophores
    1. Photophores absent.

  6. Viscera
    1. Eggs less than 3mm.
    2. Spermatophore cement body long.
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
    Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

    Figure. Spermatophore of L. brevis, 90 mm ML, showing the size of the cement body (amber color). Drawing modified from Hess (1987).

Comments

The cement body of Lolliguncula species, where known, varies roughly between 30-50% of the spermatophore length. In other loliginid genera with small cement bodies, the cement body typically is between about 3-15% of the spermatophore lenght.

Members of Lolliguncula (Lolliguncula) have the modified portion of the hectocotylus less than the entire arm (ie, the proximal portion is not modified) while Lolliguncula (Loliolopsis) has the hectocotylus modified along the entire arm.

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

Figure. Ventral view of Lolliguncula (Loliolopsis) diomedeae (holotype of Loliolopsis chiroctes), preserved. Photograph by R. Young.

Nomenclature

Berry (1929) described a new species that he named chiroctes and erected the genus Loliolopsis because of the distinctiveness of the new species. Voss (1971) recognized that L. chiroctes is a junior synonym of Hoyle's Loligo diomedeae but that Berry was correct in establishing a new genus. Therefore, the type species of Loliolopsis (now a subgenus of Lolliguncula) is Loliolopsis diomedeae (Hoyle, 1904).

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

The genus Lolliguncula was established to distinguish L. brevis from the species of Loligo then known, based on body and fin shape and spermatophore deposition site. These characters have since proven to exhibit considerable variability, both within and among species. However, all of the species in this genus are united and distinguished from all other loliginids by the long cement body of their spermatophores. Variability exists in hectocotylus morphology, and this led Berry (1929) to erect the genus Loliolopsis and Brakoniecki (1986) to erect Afrololigo. This variability is extreme in L. diomedeae, but Brakoniecki (1986) has pointed out the similarities in hectocotylization between this species and the others of Lolliguncula.

Many of the morphological characters of Afrololigo mercatoris are shared with species of Lolliguncula, the genus in which it was originally described. However, DNA sequence analysis by Anderson (2000) supports Brakoniecki's (1986) conclusion based on hectocotylus morphology that Afrololigo is a distinct genus.

Distribution

These are all American species, with their low-latitude distribution centered at Panama. One species, L. brevis, is found on the Atlantic side of the Americas whereas three, L. panamensis, L. diomedeae and L. argus are found on the Pacific side. All of these species are found in warm, shallow, inshore waters. The genus is noteworthy among cephalopods for its euryhalinity.

Other Names for Lolliguncula Steenstrup, 1881

References

Alexeyev, D.O. 1992. The Systematic Position of Bioluminescent Squids of the Family Loliginidae (Cephalopoda, Myopsida). Zoologeskiy Zhurnal, 71(11):12-23. (In Russian).

Berry, S.S. 1929. Loliolopsis chiroctes, a New Genus and Species of Squid from the Gulf of California. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History, 5(18):263-282, plates 32-33.

Brakoniecki, T.F. 1986. A Generic Revision of the Family Loliginidae (Cephalopoda; Myopsida) Based Primarily on the Comparative Morphology of the Hectocotylus. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA. 163 pages.

Vecchione, M., T. F. Brakoniecki, Y. Natsukari and R. T. Hanlon. 1998. A Provisional Generic Classification of the Family Loliginidae. Smithson. Contr. Zool., 586: 215-222.

Vecchione, M., E. Shea, S. Bussarawit, F. Anderson, D. Alexeyev, C.-C. Lu, T. Okutani, M. Roeleveld, C. Chotiyaputta, C. Roper, E. Jorgensen and N. Sukramongkol. 2005. Systematics of Indo-West Pacific loliginids. Phuket Mar. Biol. Cent. Res. Bull. 66: 23-26.

Voss, G. L. 1971. Cephalopods collected by the R/V JOHN ELLIOTT PILLSBURY in the Gulf of Panama in 1967. Bull. Mar. Sci. 21:1-34.

Title Illustrations
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Scientific Name Lollicuncula brevis
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
View Dorsal
Copyright © 1996 Gus Stacy
Scientific Name Lollicuncula brevis
Reference Vecchione, M., C. F. E. Roper and M. J. Sweeney (1989). Marine flora and fauna of the eastern United States. Mollusca: Cephalopoda. NOAA Tech. Rep., NMFS 73: 23 pp.
View Ventral, dorsal
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
Copyright ©
About This Page


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


University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Michael Vecchione at

Page: Tree of Life Lolliguncula Steenstrup, 1881. Brief squids. 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. 2010. Lolliguncula Steenstrup, 1881. Brief squids. Version 02 September 2010 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Lolliguncula/19860/2010.09.02 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

edit this page
close box

This page is a Tree of Life Branch Page.

Each ToL branch page provides a synopsis of the characteristics of a group of organisms representing a branch of the Tree of Life. The major distinction between a branch and a leaf of the Tree of Life is that each branch can be further subdivided into descendent branches, that is, subgroups representing distinct genetic lineages.

For a more detailed explanation of the different ToL page types, have a look at the Structure of the Tree of Life page.

close box

Lolliguncula

Page Content

articles & notes

collections

people

Explore Other Groups

random page

  go to the Tree of Life home page
top