The neon flying squid (''Ommastrephes bartramii''), sometimes called the red flying squid, akaika, and red squid is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of large flying

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Ommastrephidae Ommastrephidae is a family (biology), family of squid containing three subfamilies, 11 genus, genera, and over 20 species. They are widely distributed globally and are extensively fished for food. One species, ''Todarodes pacificus'', comprised a ...

. They are found in

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

and

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

oceanic waters globally. The genus contains bioluminescent species.

Taxonomy

''Ommastrephes bartramii'' belongs to the family

, subfamily Ommastrephinae. It was first described by the French

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

, and artist

Charles Alexandre Lesueur Charles Alexandre Lesueur (; 1 January 1778 in Le Havre – 12 December 1846 in Le Havre) was a French Natural history, naturalist, artist, and explorer. He was a prolific natural-history collector, gathering many type specimens in Australia ...

in 1821.

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

s consider the separate spawning populations of ''Ommastrephes bartramii'' as

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

. It was thought that ''Ommastrephes bartramii'' was the only species belonging to the monospecific genus ''Ommastrephes'', but a 2020 study which used mitochondrial DNA to evaluate individuals across nearly the entire distributional range revealed that the genus is actually an

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

cryptic

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 ...

with four distinct species consistently identified. As a result of these results, in combination with morphological and metabolic information from the literature, three formerly synonymised names were resurrected: '' Ommastrephes brevimanus'', ''Ommastrephes caroli'', and ''Ommastrephes cylindraceus'', and revised distributional ranges were proposed for each species.

Description

''Ommastrephes bartramii'' are easily distinguishable by the presence of an elongated silver-colored band in the middle of the

ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

side of the mantle. Adult males usually have a mantle length of , but can reach the maximum length of . Adult females are much larger, usually having a mantle length of around , with the maximum known length being . Their

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

do not possess lateral membranes and have 9 to 27 suckers on the ventral sucker series and 10 to 25 suckers on the dorsal sucker series. The left and right third arms have protective membranes greater in width than the arm width. The hectocotylus develops from the left or right fourth arm.Young, Richard E. and Michael Vecchione. 2009. Ommastrephes Orbigny 1834. Ommastrephes bartramii (Lesueur 1821). Red squid. Version 29 November 2009 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Ommastrephes_bartramii/19947/2009.11.29 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/. Accessed January 24, 2011 Another distinguishing characteristic of ''O. bartramii'' is the presence of 4 to 7 toothed suckers on the

tentacular club All cephalopods possess flexible limbs extending from their heads and surrounding their cephalopod beak, beaks. These appendages, which function as muscular hydrostats, have been variously termed arms, legs or tentacles. Description In ...

, near the nearest carpal suckers of the carpal locking apparatus. This is especially useful in differentiating it from the orangeback flying squid (''Sthenoteuthis pteropus''). Photophores are present but are small, irregular, and restricted to the ventral side of the mantle, head, and tentacles. Visceral photophores are absent.Young, Richard E. and Michael Vecchione. 2009. Ommastrephinae Posselt 1891. Version 29 November 2009 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Ommastrephinae/19941/2009.11.29 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ Accessed January 24, 2011 Like other ommastrephids and onychoteuthids known as 'flying squid', neon flying squid are so named for their ability to shoot out of the water, much like flying fishes. They sometimes unintentionally land on the decks of ships. This happens more frequently during rough weather or in the presence of predators in the vicinity, and it is presumed that this behavior is an instinctive response to threat. Flying squid have been observed to engage in behaviors that prolong the time it remains in the air, making it more akin to actual flight than just gliding. Biologists, however, still do not fully understand the exact mechanisms by which the squid become airborne. Nevertheless, the phenomenon is known to happen quite frequently and at least one photographic evidence of ''Ommastrephes bartramii'' in flight exists.

Distribution and habitat

Neon flying squid are cosmopolitan, being found in subtropical and temperate waters of the

Pacific 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 the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, and

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

s. They are rarely found in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. "Giant squids in the Aegean". ''Ethnos'', March 27, 2012. p. 22. At night, they are usually found feeding just beneath the surface near cold-water fronts, at depths of .DFO, 1999
Neon flying squid
DFO Science Stock Status Report C6-12 (1999) They descend to depths of during daytime, though they have been known to descend to depths of up to .Roper, C.F.E., M.J. Sweeney and C.E. Nauen 1984. ''Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species of interest to fisheries''. FAO Fisheries Synopsis (125) 3: 277 p. This movement pattern is known as diel vertical migration and is also exhibited by other oceanic organisms.

Ecology and biology

Life cycle

Neon flying squid are highly migratory. They have a lifespan of about one year, during which they complete a cyclical migration between their feeding and spawning grounds.McCrae, J. 1994. Oregon Developmental Species: other squid, neon flying squid (''Ommastrephes bartrami''). Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlif

Mating occurs when males (who usually achieve sexual maturity earlier in the season) pass spermatophores to the females. The female squid store them in the oral surface of their wikt:buccal, buccal membrane until they too become sexually mature later in the season and begin to spawn. Spawning is continuous and not seasonal, occurring virtually throughout the year in intermittent spawning events. Each female spawns approximately 350,000 to 3.6 million eggs, depending on their size. Males and females are both presumed to die soon after. Hatchlings are around long and grow rapidly, reaching a length of after a month. The paralarvae migrate northwards toward the waters bordering

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

regions during

summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

and

autumn Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphe ...

. They are usually found feeding at a depth of from the surface. Maturing squid return to the spawning grounds to mate.

Diet and predators

Neon flying squid eat small oceanic fishes (like

lanternfish Lanternfish (or myctophids, from the Greek language, Greek μυκτήρ ''myktḗr'', "nose" and ''ophis'', "serpent") are small mesopelagic fish of the large family (biology), family Myctophidae. One of two families in the order Myctophiformes, ...

es and saury) and other squids. They are known to engage in cannibalism to smaller members of their own species as well. They serve as

prey Predation is a biological interaction in which 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 ki ...

to large fishes (like

swordfish The swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as the broadbill in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are the sole member of the Family (biology), family Xiphiidae. They ...

, marlin, and tuna),

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

s, and marine mammals. They are also fished commercially for human consumption.

References

External links

Ommastrephidae
at th
Tree of Life web project
with a photo taken of ''Ommastrephes bartramii'' in flight. *
Ommastrephes bartramii
' at th
Tree of Life web project
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2812306 Ommastrephidae Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Molluscs of the Indian Ocean Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean Marine molluscs of Africa Marine molluscs of Asia Marine molluscs of Europe Marine molluscs of North America Cephalopods of North America Cephalopods of South America Cephalopods described in 1821 Bioluminescent molluscs Taxa named by Charles Alexandre Lesueur