''Sepioloidea pacifica'', also known as the Pacific bobtail squid, is a species of

cuttlefish Cuttlefish, or cuttles, are Marine (ocean), marine Mollusca, molluscs of the order (biology), suborder Sepiina. They belong to the class (biology), class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique ...

native to the southern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

; it occurs off

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in the west and in the

Nazca Nazca (; sometimes spelled Nasca; possibly from ) is a city and system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru. The city of Nazca is the largest in the Nazca Province. The name is derived from the Nazca culture, which flourished in the area be ...

and Sala y Gomez submarine ridges in the east.Reid, A. 2005. Family Sepiadariidae. ''In:'' P. Jereb & C.F.E. Roper, eds. ''Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species known to date. Volume 1. Chambered nautiluses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae).'' FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes. No. 4, Vol. 1. Rome, FAO. pp. 204–207. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

was collected off New Zealand and is deposited at the National Museum of New Zealand in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

. ''Sepioloidea pacifica'' was first described as a species in 1882 by T.W. Kirk.

Morphology

Mantle

Male mantles can grow up to 19 mm in length, and female mantles can grow up to 26 mm in length.

Suckers

''Sepioloidea pacifica'' have rows of 5 biserial suckers, with the largest suckers closer to the edge of the arms.

References

External links

Deep sea photography
Cephalopods of Oceania Sepioloidea Cephalopods described in 1882 Molluscs of New Zealand Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean {{cuttlefish-stub