''Grimpoteuthis abyssicola'' is a species of small deep-sea octopus known from two specimens. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen was a female collected on the

Lord Howe Rise The Lord Howe Rise is a deep sea plateau which extends from south west of New Caledonia to the Challenger Plateau, west of New Zealand in the south west of the Pacific Ocean. To its west is the Tasman Basin and to the east is the New Caledonia ...

(central

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

off New Zealand), between 3154 and 3180 meters depth. A second specimen (a male) was collected on the continental slope of south-eastern Australia between 2821 and 2687 m depth. The female type specimen had a mantle about 75 millimeters long, while its total body reached 305 millimeters long (the male specimen had a longer mantle length at 99 mm, but a shorter total length of 245 mm). ''G. abyssicola's'' internal

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

is U-shaped, lacking any lateral prominences/shoulders, and with the ends of shell rounded, this shell shape is distinctive from other ''Grimpoteuthis'' (with the possible exception of ''

Grimpoteuthis hippocrepium ''Grimpoteuthis hippocrepium'' is a species of octopus. It is only known from one specimen found in 1904, which was poorly preserved. Some characteristics ''G. hippocrepium'' are unknown. Description and range The type specimen of ''G. hippocrepi ...

''). This species can also be distinguished from other members of ''

Grimpoteuthis ''Grimpoteuthis'' is a genus of pelagic umbrella octopuses known as the dumbo octopuses. The name "dumbo" originates from their resemblance to the title character of Disney's 1941 film ''Dumbo'', having a prominent ear-like fin which extends from ...

'' due to the absence of both a radula and posterior salivary glands, how many suckers it has (up to 74 or 77 per arm on the known specimens), and where the arm cirri commence. On the holotype the first 6-8 suckers on each arm are small, then larger up to sucker 30-35, followed this are a further 30-35 suckers rapidly decreasing in size to the arm tip. Present records of this species are too few to assess its conservation status (but it is likely not threatened given its abyssal distribution).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2143765 Octopuses Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean Molluscs described in 1999 Species known from a single specimen Cephalopods of Oceania Cephalopods of Australia Molluscs of New Zealand