Pterygioteuthis microlampas Berry 1913

Pterygioteuthis microlampas Berry, 1913

ORIGINAL REFERENCE.—Pterygioteuthis microlampas Berry, 1913b:566.

DEPOSITION OF TYPES.—Holotype: USNM 214386 (no longer extant), female 18 mm ML, R/V Albatross sta 4105, Kaiwi Channel off Molokai Island, Hawaiian Islands, 24 Jul 1902.

Paratypes: None designated.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.—Central Pacific (Berry, 1914b; Young, 1978); South Pacific (Riddell, 1985).

COMMENTS.—The holoype is illustrated in Berry (1914b, figs. 35, 36, pl. LII: figs. 1–3).

ANCISTROCHEIRIDAE Pfeffer, 1912

TYPE GENUS.—Ancistrocheirus Gray, 1849.

DIAGNOSIS.—Buccal crown with 8 supports. Buccal connectives attached to dorsal margins of arms IV. No secondary buccal connectives attached to ventral margins of arms I and II. Gladius with pointed conus and elongate cone field; long pointed rostrum present. Hooks present on all arms; tentacular clubs with 2 series of hooks on manus; armature on manus in 2 series (suckers absent). Photophores present on fins, mantle, funnel, head, arms, and tentacles. Photophores absent from viscera and eyeballs. Nidamental glands present; oviducal glands normal. Oviducts unipaired. Fins slightly subterminal, without posterior lobes. Tail fleshy; vesicles absent. Nuchal folds present. Tentacles not modified near base; stalk “ligament” and vein leave tentacle at base and in membrane. Ink sac not embedded in digestive gland.

Ancistrocheirus Gray, 1849

TYPE SPECIES.—Enoploteuthis lesueurii Orbigny, 1842, in Férussac and Orbigny, 1834–1848, by indication.

DIAGNOSIS.—Same as for family.

Ancistrocheirus lesueurii (Orbigny, 1842, in Férussac and Orbigny, 1834–1848)

ORIGINAL REFERENCE.—Enoploteuthis lesueurii Orbigny, 1842:339, pl. 11: figs. 1–5, pl. 14: figs. 4–10, in Férussac and Orbigny, 1834–1848.

DEPOSITION OF TYPES.—Holotype: MNHN 2-14-614, 2-14-615 (gladius), 2-14-616 (beaks), male, 125 mm ML, locality not indicated (dolphin stomach content), condition unknown (fide Lu et al., 1995).

Paratypes: None.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.—Southeast Pacific (Adam, 1954; Riddell, 1985); Northwest Pacific (Okutani, 1976); central Pacific (Young, 1978); eastern tropical Pacific (Okutani, 1974); western tropical Pacific (Nesis, 1978); Indian Ocean (Silas, 1968; Okutani and Tsukada, 1988); North Atlantic (Clarke and Lu, 1975; Lu and Roper, 1979; Toll and Hess, 1981); South Atlantic (Pfeffer, 1912; Clarke, 1980).

COMMENTS.—The date of the species originates from publication of the plates (1835 and 1839–1842) (see Bello, 1992; Tillier and Boucher-Rodoni, 1993); publication of the description followed in 1848 (Orbigny, 1848:339, in Férussac and Orbigny, 1834–1848). Insufficient material has been available for critical species-level comparisons of specimens from different regions. A second species, A. alessandrinii (Verany, 1851), has been described, but, at present, we considered it a synonym of A. lesueurii because characters adequate to separate them have not been confirmed.

Pterygioteuthis microlampas is a species of squid in the family Pyroteuthidae. They occur from northern New Zealand oceans to the Hawaiian Islands, but they do not overlap with the species P. gemmata, which lives in more southern waters. While there are numerous similarities between these two species, they are separated by the smaller mature size of P. microlampas (maximum mantle length of 23 mm) and the fewer number of hooks on males. The species reproduce sexually during the late autumn to early winter, producing eggs with a diameter of 0.9 mm.