Narrowteuthis nesisi: Description Continued

1. Arms
1. Arms weak with thin sheath of muscle around a gelatinous core.
2. Arm formula: IV>III>II>I. Arms IV > ML.
3. Protective membranes damaged, little remains.
4. Buccal connectives attach to dorsal margins of arms IV.
   
2. Tentacles
1. Club protective membranes small, inconspicuous with trabeculae barely discernable.
2. Locking apparatus:
   1. 10-11 suckers in a line along dorsal margin of proximal-manus (see photograph below).
   2. 5-6 suckers in carpal region at base of manus; 1-2 distal suckers in carpus much smaller than the others.
   3. 7-8 suckers widely strung along distal half or more of tentacular stalk.
   4. Suckers have corresponding knobs.
   

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   Figure. Oral view of the tentacle of N. nesisi, holotype, showing proximal portion of the manus, the carpal locking apparatus and two of the locking suckers of the tentacular stalk. Photograph by R. Young.

3. Manus:
1. Proximal-manus short, expanded and with numerous small suckers that are laterally folded.
2. suckers arranged in irregular series with about 12-14 suckers across broadest portion of manus.
3. About 25-35 suckers along length of manus.
4. Distal suckers (of proximal-manus slightly smaller (ca. 0.4mm long diam.) than proximal suckers (ca. 0.5 mm long diam.).


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Figure. Oral view of the tentacular club of N. nesisi, showing the distal portion of the proximal manus and the abreviated distal manus that shortly merges into the dactylus. Locking suckers and knobs of the manus are seen along the dorsal margin. Detached tentacle, presumably from holotype. Photograph by R. Young.

4. Dactylus:
1. Dactylus with neck-like distal portion and expanded terminal pad.
2. Suckers in 4-5 irregular series on proximal end of distal manus becoming 4 series on dactylus 1-2 series on neck-like region of dactylus.
3. Terminal pad with 6-8 suckers of varying sizes forming a circle or partial circle around a central bare space.


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Figure. Oral views of the distal portions of the tentacular club of N. nesisi. Left - Dactylus and distal manus. Right - Tip of the dactylus and terminal pad. Detached tentacle, presumably from holotype. Photograph by R. Young.

3. Funnel
1. Funnel-mantle locking apparatus with straight groove and ridge.
   
4. Gladius
1. Morphometrics from Toll (1982): Gladius length - 111.7 mm; free rhachis length - 9.9 mm; free rhachis width - 3.4 mm; maximum gladius width (across vanes) - 8.2 mm; conus length - 3.0 mm.
   
5. Pigmentation
1. No pigment remains.
2. Remnants of a thick, whitish tissue present on aboral surfaces of arms and head and traces on mantle.


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Figure. Dorsolateral view of the arms of N. nesisi, holotype. Remnants of the whitish (= silvery in life?) tissue is present on the outer surfaces of the arms. The arm with a right-angle bend is the right arm II which shows the whitish tissue most clearly; adjacent to it are the two small  arms I then the large left arms II and III. Photograph by R. Young.

6. Measurements

Specimen	Holotype NMNH 730704	Paratype NMNH 7075115
Sex	Male	--
Mantle length, mm	100	--
Mantle width	18	--
Head length	23
Head width	18 (estimate)
Arm length I, Left / Right	? / 41
Arm length II	? / 79
Arm length III	98+ / 100
Arm length IV	123 / 135
Club length	-- / 20

Comments

The beaks had been removed by an earlier investigator.

References

Toll, R.B. 1982. The comparative morphology of the gladius in the Order Teuthoidea (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) in relation to systematics and phylogeny. PhD. Dissertation, University of Miami, 390 pp.

Young, R. E. and M. Vecchione. 2005. Narrowteuthis nesisi, a new genus and new species of the squid family Neoteuthidae (Mollusca; Cephalopoda). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 118 (3): 566-569.