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Alloteuthis africanus Adam 1950

Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young
Containing group: Alloteuthis

Introduction

A tropical loliginid of the eastern Atlantic. Maximum mantle length 19 cm in males, 9 cm in females.

Characteristics

  1. Mantle
    1. Mantle long and narrow, mantle width 20 - 25% ML in juveniles, 15% in adult females, 5% in adult males
    2. Anterior ventral mantle margin squarish in outline.
    3. Tail (fins and posterior mantle projection) very long and pointed in females (37% of dorsal mantle length in juveniles and 58% in adults) and extremely long and spike-like in males (35% in juveniles, 73% in adults).
  2. Fins
    1. Fins oval in outline.
    2. Fin width index (width of both fins as a percentage of dorsal mantle length) 23% in adult females and 10% in adult males.
    3. posterior border of fins concave.
  3. Buccal crown
    1. Buccal lappets without suckers.
  4. Arms:
    1. Arms very short.
    2. Arm suckers with 6 to 10 square teeth on dista1 half, smooth on proximal half.
    3. Left ventral arm hectocotylized by modification of dista1 2/5 of length; 8 to 11 pairs of normal suckers proximally followed by 2 longitudinal series of elongate papilla that gradually decrease in size distally.
  5. Tentacles
    1. Diameters of club suckers of median 2 series 3 times greater than lateral ones.
    2. Sucker rings with 20 to 30 blunt teeth.

Habitat and Biology

Found at depths of 20-100 m, temperatures of 16-26 °C. Reproduction is apparently year-round.  Feeds on small fishes.

Geographical Distribution

Atlantic: from 20 °S to 25 °N.

Other Names for Alloteuthis africanus Adam 1950

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 Alloteuthis africanus Adam 1950. 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. Alloteuthis africanus Adam 1950. Version 02 September 2010 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Alloteuthis_africanus/52719/2010.09.02 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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