''Onychoteuthis banksii'', the common clubhook squid, is a species of squid in the family Onychoteuthidae. It is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Onychoteuthis''. This species was thought to have a worldwide distribution but with the revision of the

'' Onychoteuthis'' in 2010, it is now accepted that ''Onychoteuthis banksii'' is restricted to the central and northern Atlantic and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

while a recently described species, '' Onychoteuthis horstkottei'', is found in the Pacific Ocean. The type locality is the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian (zero degrees latitude and longitude) is in ...

Description

The maximum mantle length is . The eight arms are all of equal size and the tentacles are 27% of the mantle length. The clubs on the end of the tentacles bear two rows of strongly recurved hooks. There are two intestinal

photophore A photophore is a glandular organ that appears as luminous spots on various marine animals, including fish and cephalopods. The organ can be simple, or as complex as the human eye; equipped with lenses, shutters, color filters and reflectors, ...

s, the anterior one being larger than the posterior one; there are also photophores in the form of whitish patches on the underside of the eyeballs. Most squid live in deep water, and in these, the lens of the eye is translucent to

ultraviolet light Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...

. However, ''O. banksii'' lives near the surface where ultraviolet light penetrates the water, and the lens is yellow, strongly absorbing blue light.

Distribution and habitat

Although this species used to be considered to have a global distribution in tropical and temperate seas, it is now accepted that it is restricted to the north and central

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and the

, with other species in the

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

occupying other parts of its previous range. It occurs in open waters from the sea surface down to depths of ; It often rises to the surface at nights, sometimes being found on the decks of ships.

Ecology

Like all squid, ''O. banksii'' is a

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

. With its long tentacles it can catch prey much larger than its relatively small mouth. The posterior salivary gland secretes a toxin which helps subdue the prey while the horny beak breaks it into small pieces that the squid is able to swallow; to a human, the bite of this squid feels like a wasp sting. The biology of this species is poorly known; it is short-lived, with females shedding their feeding tentacles at maturity, and after spawning, losing their turgidity and becoming weak.

References

* Leach, W.E. 1817. Synopsis of the Orders, Families, and Genera of the Class Cephalopoda. ''The Zoological Miscellany; being Descriptions of New or Interesting Animals'' 3(30): 137-141. * Pfeffer, G. 1912. Die Cephalopoden der Plankton-Expedition. Zugleich eine Monographische Übersicht der Oegopsiden Cephalopoden. ''Ergebniss der Plankton-Expedition der Humboldt-Stiftung'' 2: 1-815.

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2519387 Squid Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Cephalopods described in 1817 Taxa named by William Elford Leach