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Onykia carriboea Lesueur, 1821

Michael Vecchione, Richard E. Young, and Kotaro Tsuchiya
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Containing group: Onykia

Introduction

O. carriboea is known, with certainty, only from small juveniles. Like most (all?) young in this genus, it is found in the neuston of the surface waters, where it is often associated with the floating seaweed, Sargassum. It has a purplish dorsal surface and silvery to golden sides and ventrum.

Characteristics

Species characteristics change rapidly with growth. Insufficient information is available to distinguish this species from other species of Onykia when comparing only small juveniles.

Nomenclature

This is the type species of the genus. The type locality is the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Stream. Specimens of subadult Onykia from the Gulf of Mexico appear to be conspecific with O. robsoni (Kubodera, et al., 1998). Therefore, O. robsoni could ultimately prove to be a junior synonym of O. carriboea. However, detailed comparisons of specimens from their respective type localities are needed before this problem can be resolved. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the holotype of O. carriboea no longer exists (Sweeney and Roper, 1998).

References

T. Kubodera, U. Piatkowski, T. Okutani and M.R. Clarke. 1998. Taxonomy and Zoogeography of the Family Onychoteuthidae (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, No. 586: 277-291.

Lesueur, C.A. 1821. Descriptions of Several New Species of Cuttle-fish. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 2(1):86-101.

Tsuchiya, K., and T. Okutani. 1991. Growth Stages of Moroteuthis robusta (Verrill, 1881) with the Re-evaluation of the Genus. Bulletin of Marine Science, 49(1/2):137-147.

Title Illustrations
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
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Scientific Name Onykia carriboea
Reference Lesueur, C.A. 1821. Descriptions of Several New Species of Cuttle-fish. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 2(1):86-101.
View Dorsal, side
Size 25 mm ML
Type Holotype
Scientific Name Onykia carriboea (?)
Location Continental slope south of New England, USA
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
View Side
Size 145 mm ML
Copyright © John Galbraith
About This Page


National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C. , USA


University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA


Tokyo University of Fisheries, Tokyo, Japan

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Citing this page:

Vecchione, Michael, Richard E. Young, and Kotaro Tsuchiya. 2003. Onykia carriboea Lesueur, 1821. Version 23 June 2003 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Onykia_carriboea/19971/2003.06.23 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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