(Vérany, 1839)
Description
Adult. Swift nektonic squid with a muscular mantle, large head and strong arms. Mantle length up to 29 cm. Mantle width is 17-25 % of mantle length. Fin is terminal, rhomboidal and wide. Arms bear two rows of suckers with denticulate rings. Suckers of lateral arms in males are conspicuously enlarged. Length of the longest arm in males is 55-90 % of the mantle length, in females 48-57 %. The widened club bears 8 transverse rows of suckers at the end of the club. Suckers of the middle rows in the central part of the club are greatly enlarged.
Young. Ocular or visceral photophores absent. Tip of proboscis with suckers that are nearly equal in size; length of proboscis is typically 50-75% of the mantle length (4-8 mm mantle length). The proboscis begins to divide at about 4 mm mantle length, and the tentacles separate by 10 mm mantle length. Postproboscis of the young is characterised by the presence of morre than four rows of suckers on the dactylus and many closely packed suckers and/or sucker buds. [After Wormuth et al., in Sweeney et al., 1992].
Size
Adult mantle length up to 30 cm.
Depth range
I. coindetti lives at the bottom at depths from 40-50 to 500-600 m and in midwater.
Distribution in the North Sea
Southern species; rare in the North Sea.
World distribution
Eastern Atlantic from southern England to Namibia; Mediterranean Sea; tropical W Atlantic in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea from Cape Canaveral to Venezuela and Surinam.