Onykia (Moroteuthopsis) ingens (Smith, 1881)

Michael Vecchione, Richard E. Young, and Kotaro Tsuchiya

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Containing group: Onykia

Introduction

O. ingens reaches a length of at least 500 mm ML (Kubodera, et al., 1998) and is found in circumpolar but mostly sub-Antarctic waters.

Brief diagnosis:

An Onykia ...

with rhomboidal fins (ie fins not drawn-out posteriorly).
with warts on the skin.
with rostrum of gladius having a triangular cross-section.

Characteristics

Tentacles
1. Club with usually 14 pairs of hooks (range - 13-16 hooks, dorsal series, 13-15, ventral series).
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  Figure. Oral view of tentacular club of O. ingens. Drawing from Pfeffer, 1912.
Head
1. Beaks: Descriptions can be found here: Lower beak; upper beak.
Mantle
1. Ventral mantle with soft, irregular warts.
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  Figure. A piece of ventral mantle skin of O. ingens. Drawing from Pfeffer, 1912.
Fins
1. Rhomboidal shape, not drawn out into a tail.
2. Length 50-60% of ML.
3. Width 60-70% of ML.
Gladius
1. Maximum width of vanes ca. 11% of gladius length (to tip of conus).
2. Rostrum 11-12% of the ML, triangular in cross-section.
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  Figure. Ventral view of gladius of O. ingens with cross-sections. Drawing from Pfeffer, 1912.

comments

This description is taken from Pfeffer (1912).

Additional features of the description can be found here.

Life History

The tentacular club of a young O. ingens, 77mm ML has a few marginal suckers still remaining on the proximal dorsal margin and on the distal ventral margin.

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Figure. Oral view of tentacular club of O. ingens, 77 mm ML. Drawing from Tsuchiya and Okutani, 1981, p. 145, Fig. 35.

Dubinina (1980) described a juvenile squid from the Southwest Atlantic as Onykia robsoni (drawing to the right) but according to C. Nigmatullin (personal communication) it probably is a young O. ingens. The scale bar is 1 mm.

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Figure. Ventral and dorsal views, probably, of O. ingens, 13 mm ML. Drawing from Dubinina (1980).

Distribution

This species is circumpolar in sub-Antarctic waters. A map of its distribution is found here.

Other Names for Onykia (Moroteuthopsis) ingens (Smith, 1881)

Moroteuthis ingens

References

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

Dubinina, T. S. 1980. On a finding of a larvae Moroteuthis robsoni (Oegopsida, Onychoteuthidae) in South-west Atlantic.

T. Kubodera, U. Piatkowski, T. Okutani and M.R. Clarke. 1998. Taxonomy and Zoogeography of the Family Onychoteuthidae (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, No. 586: 277-291.

Tsuchiya, K., and T. Okutani. 1991. Growth Stages of Moroteuthis robusta (Verrill, 1881) with the Re-evaluation of the Genus. Bulletin of Marine Science, 49(1/2):137-147.

Title Illustrations

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Scientific Name	Onykia (Moroteuthopsis) ingens
Location	SW Chatham Rise (near New Zealand) at 44°21'S, 175°32'E
Comments	Bottom trawl at at about 690 m depth
Acknowledgements	National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA)
Identified By	Darren Stevens
Sex	Female
Life Cycle Stage	Mature
View	Ventral
Size	384 mm ML, 1875 g weight
Collection	NIWA
Image Use	This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0.
Copyright	©

Scientific Name	Onykia ingens
Reference	Pfeffer, G. 1912. Die Cephalopoden der Plankton-Expedition. Zugleich eine Monographische Übersicht der Oegopsiden Cephalopoden. Ergebniss der Plankton- Expedition der Humboldt-Stiftung, 2:1-815.
Specimen Condition	Dead Specimen
View	Ventral, dorsal
Size	ca. 400 mm ML

About This Page

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

University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

Tokyo University of Fisheries, Tokyo, Japan

Page: Tree of Life Onykia (Moroteuthopsis) ingens (Smith, 1881). Authored by Michael Vecchione, Richard E. Young, and Kotaro Tsuchiya. 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.

First online 23 June 2003

Citing this page:

Vecchione, Michael, Richard E. Young, and Kotaro Tsuchiya. 2003. Onykia (Moroteuthopsis) ingens (Smith, 1881). Version 23 June 2003 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Onykia_%28Moroteuthopsis%29_ingens/19972/2003.06.23 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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