''Octopoteuthis deletron'' 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 t ...

in the genus '' Octopoteuthis'' of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Octopoteuthidae The Octopoteuthidae are a family of squid comprising two genera. The family is characterized by tentacles which cease to grow after the paralarval stage, and the use of a penis, instead of a hectocotylus A hectocotylus (plural: ''hectocotyli' ...

. They belong to the

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

squids of order

Oegopsida Oegopsida is one of the two orders of squid in the superorder Decapodiformes, in the class Cephalopoda. Together with the Myopsina, it was formerly considered to be a suborder of the order Teuthida, in which case it was known as Oegopsina. This ...

. Found at depths of in the

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

, they have been known to grow to . ''O. deletron'' has been found to break off its arms as a defense strategy. The squid digs hooks in one of its arms into a predator and jets away, leaving the arm in the predator's skin. The male ''O. deletron'' has a

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...

, which is unusual among squids. Males find it difficult to detect the sex of other individuals they encounter in the dark depths, so they have adopted a strategy of attaching sperm packets to all individuals they meet. ''O. deletron'' are the most common species found in the stomachs of

northern elephant seal The northern elephant seal (''Mirounga angustirostris'') is one of two species of elephant seal (the other is the southern elephant seal). It is a member of the family (biology), family Phocidae (true seal (mammal), seals). Elephant seals derive ...

s sampled off the coast of California. It is an important prey item of the

giant grenadier ''Albatrossia pectoralis'', the giant grenadier or giant rattail, is a very large rattail, and the only member of the genus ''Albatrossia''. It is found in the north Pacific from northern Japan to the Okhotsk and Bering Seas, east to the Gulf of ...

. It is also eaten by the enigmatic

Perrin's beaked whale Perrin's beaked whale (''Mesoplodon perrini'') is part of the toothed whale suborder and is one of over 90 known cetaceans in existence today. Beaked whales are part of the family Ziphiidae, which are the second most diverse group out of all mari ...

(''Mesoplodon perrini'').

References

External links

* Squid Cephalopods of Oceania Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean Molluscs described in 1972 {{Squid-stub