Under Construction

Onykia Lesueur, 1821

K.S.R. Bolstad, Michael Vecchione, and Richard E. Young
This genus currently contains seven species.
taxon links [up-->]Onykia carriboea [up-->]Onykia sp. A [up-->]Onykia loennbergii [up-->]Onykia (Onykia) robsoni [up-->]Onykia aequatorialis [up-->]Onykia (Onykia) robusta [up-->]Onykia (Moroteuthopsis) ingens [down<--]Onychoteuthidae Interpreting the tree
close box

This tree diagram shows the relationships between several groups of organisms.

The root of the current tree connects the organisms featured in this tree to their containing group and the rest of the Tree of Life. The basal branching point in the tree represents the ancestor of the other groups in the tree. This ancestor diversified over time into several descendent subgroups, which are represented as internal nodes and terminal taxa to the right.

example of a tree diagram

You can click on the root to travel down the Tree of Life all the way to the root of all Life, and you can click on the names of descendent subgroups to travel up the Tree of Life all the way to individual species.

For more information on ToL tree formatting, please see Interpreting the Tree or Classification. To learn more about phylogenetic trees, please visit our Phylogenetic Biology pages.

close box

Note: this tree is still under construction. It does not yet contain all known Onykia subgroups.

Type species. -- Onykia carriboea Lesueur, 1821
Containing group: Onychoteuthidae

Introduction

Adults of Onykia are medium-sized (275 mm ML) to very large (1600 mm ML) squids which are the largest members of the family. Only two genera of cephalopods, Architeuthis, the true giant squid, and Mesonychoteuthis, a cranchiid squid, grow to greater lengths than some species of Onykia. Species of Onykia are well known from high latitudes. Tropical species, however, are poorly known.

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

Figure. O. robusta aboard trawler, high North Pacific. Photographed by ?

Brief diagnosis: 

An onychoteuthid ...

Characteristics

  1. Tentacles
    1. Clubs of subadults and adults with two series of hooks; suckers limited to carpal cluster and terminal pad.
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

      Figure. Oral view of the tentacular club of O. ingens. Drawing from Pfeffer, 1912.

  2. Head
    1. Three occipital folds present (arrows in photograph). Occipital membrane from fold number 3 extends to, or nearly to, nuchal cartilage.
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

      Figure. Lateral view of head showing occipital folds, Onykia sp.(robusta?), 25 mm ML, ca 32°N off southern California, NMNH #542.

  3. Funnel
    1. Funnel groove with inverted Y-shaped ridge in squid over 100 mm ML. This characters is known in O. lonnbergii, O. robusta and O. robsoni. Its presence in other species is uncertain although it appears to be absent in O. ingens and O. knipovitchi.
    2. Anterior margin of funnel groove rounded.
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

      Figure. Left - Ventrolateral view of the head of O. robusta showing the funnel groove, 160 mm ML. Drawing from Okutani, 1983. Right - Ventral view of head and funnel groove of O. robsoni (?), northeast coast of USA. Photograph by R. Young.

  4. Mantle
    1. Dermis of mantle skin with warts or soft wrinkles (except in O. knipovitchi).
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

      Figure. The skin of O. ingens. Drawing from Pfeffer, 1912.

  5. Photophores
    1. Photophores absent.

  6. Gladius
    1. Gladius with long, thick, cartilaginous-like rostrum.
    2. Long, lanceolate vanes extend into conus field without the narrow, posterior "neck" seen in Onychoteuthis, Ancistroteuthis and Notonykia.
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

      Figure. Ventral view of the gladius of O. ingens with cross-sections and a side view of the conus and rostrum. Drawings from Pfeffer, 1912.

Comments

The rostrum of the gladius is peculiar, not only in its size but in its cartilage-like structure. The drawing in Fig. A shows the conus of the gladius with the rostrum removed (it detaches easily from the gladius). Along side it (Fig. B is a drawing of the removed rostrum. Fig. C shows a scanning electron micrograph cross-section throuh the rostrum at the point of the arrow in Fig. B. Note the spaces, fluid-filled in life, that give the rostrum its cartilage-like consistency.

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

Figure. Gladius of O. robusta. Drawings and photomicrograph from Toll, 1982. A - Ventral view of the gladius conus. B - Ventral view of the rostrum. C - Scanning electron micrograph of a cross-section of the rostrum.

Species comparisons

Species Cross-section
of rostrum
Skin
sculpture
Fin
shape
Number
of hooks
Habitat
O. carriboea ? ? ? ? Western tropical/subtropical Atlantic
O. ingens Triangular Warts Romboidal 28 Subantarctic
O. knipovitchi Triangular Smooth Rhomboidal 20-30 Antarctic waters
O. lonnbergii Triangular Warts Rhomboidal 25 Western North Pacific
O. robsoni Triangular Warts Sagittate 26-32 North of southern subtropical convergence
O. robusta circular ridges Sagittate 30-36 Temperate, subarctic North Pacific

Nomenclature

For over a century members of this taxon were placed in the genus Moroteuthis. In 1991, Tsuchiya and Okutani demonstrated that specimens historically attributed Onykia Lesueur, 1821, were the young stages of knownspecies of Moroteuthis Verrill, 1881, making the latter genus name a junior synonym of the former. Tsuchiya and Okutani (1991) also demonstrated that "Moroteuthis" japonica (Taki, 1964) and "Moroteuthis" pacifica were growth stages of Onykia robusta. Kubodera et al. (1998) state that Onykia indica Okutani, 1981 is probably the young form of some known species of Onykia.

Life History

Young Onykia, like the ca 10 mm ML squid in the photograph (below left), are common members of the oceanic neuston. They are often associated with floating debris and have a bluish iridescence. Even at 25 mm ML (below right) some species may still be neustonic.

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

Figure. Left - Side view of a juvenile Onykia sp., ca. 1 cm ML, Hawaiian waters, live. Right - Side view of a juvenile Onykia sp., 25 mm ML, off southern California (NMNH #542), preserved. Photographs by R. Young.

The paralarvae of some species of Onykia (Figs. A-C below) have a distinctive appearance: They are broad and have a characteristic line of large dorsal mantle chromatophores whose widths increase posteriorly. Small paralarvae often are observed in preserved samples with the head mostly withdrawn into the mantle cavity as shown in Fig. A.

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

Figure. Ventral and dorsal views of paralarvae and an early juvenile of Onykia sp. A - 1.7 mm ML paralarva. B - 2.7 mm ML paralarva. C - 3.4 mm ML paralarva. D - 5.6 mm ML juvenile. A-C show paralarvae with contracted anterior mantle margins which are commonly observed in preserved paralarvae. These growth stages were taken from plankton tows in Hawaiian waters. The adult is unknown. The scale bar is 1 mm.

References

Kubodera, T., 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.

Okutani, T. 1983. A new species of an oceanic squid, Moroteuthis pacifica from the North Pacific (Cephalopoda: Onychoteuthidae). Bull. Nat. Sci. Mus., Ser. A (Zoology), 9:105-113.

Pfeffer, G. 1912. Die Cephalopoden der Plankton-Expedition. Ergebnisse der Plankton-Expedition der Humboldt-Stiftung. 2: 1-815.

Toll, R.B. 1982. The comparative morphology of the gladius in the Order Teuthoidea (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) in relation to systematics and phylogeny. PhD. Dissertation, University of Miami, 390 pp.

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.

About This Page

K.S.R. Bolstad
Auckland University of Technology


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


University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to K.S.R. Bolstad at

Page: Tree of Life Onykia Lesueur, 1821. Authored by K.S.R. Bolstad, Michael Vecchione, and Richard E. Young. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Bolstad, K.S.R., Michael Vecchione, and Richard E. Young. 2011. Onykia Lesueur, 1821. Version 02 March 2011 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Onykia/19956/2011.03.02 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

edit this page
close box

This page is a Tree of Life Branch Page.

Each ToL branch page provides a synopsis of the characteristics of a group of organisms representing a branch of the Tree of Life. The major distinction between a branch and a leaf of the Tree of Life is that each branch can be further subdivided into descendent branches, that is, subgroups representing distinct genetic lineages.

For a more detailed explanation of the different ToL page types, have a look at the Structure of the Tree of Life page.

close box

Onykia

Page Content

articles & notes

collections

people

Explore Other Groups

random page

  go to the Tree of Life home page
top