Magnoteuthis microlucens is a species of

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting ...

; the most common species of '' Mastigoteuthis'' around the main

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost ...

. A specimen was caught in a filter placed in one of the deep-sea pipelines of the

Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (''NELHA'') administers the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park (HOST Park). ''NELHA'' was founded in 1974. At , HOST Park is a state-subsidized industrial park for incubator and marginal comm ...

Authority (NELHA) off the

in the summer of 2007. On June 12, 2007, the creature was identified as an unnamed species of squid.Associated Press 2007
Rare deep-sea squid found off the Big Island
''KPUA'', July 6, 2007. Command, B. 2007
Scientists all agog at 'octosquid'
''Hawaii Tribune Herald'', June 29, 2007. Yap, B.P. 2007

''Honolulu Star Bulletin'', July 5, 2007. The ruby-red creature was about a foot long, with white

suction cup A suction cup, also known as a sucker, is a device or object that uses the negative fluid pressure of air or water to adhere to nonporous surfaces, creating a partial vacuum. Suction cups are peripheral traits of some animals such as octop ...

s on its arms. The animal died three days after it was brought to the surface. The specimen was originally dubbed "Octosquid" by NELHA operations manager Jan War, a reference to the fact that the specimen had only eight arms, like an

octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefis ...

, rather than the eight arms and two tentacles of most

. An examination of the specimen conducted by Richard Young of the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

, however, concluded that it was an unnamed species of the genus '' Mastigoteuthis''. The specimen was likely missing its tentacles due to them being torn off during capture. It was formally described in 2008 as ''Mastigoteuthis microlucens''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7077113 Squid