Owen, 1834
Description
Adult. Small animals with a short, posteriorly rounded mantle. Anterior edge of the mantle is not fused with the head on the back. Head is wide. Dorsal side of head and mantle are beset by small rounded papillae whose number, size, and distribution vary greatly. In typical case the papillae are large and sparsely dispersed, but in juveniles and some local forms they are small and poorly visible. Fins are kidney-shaped. Tentacles are retractile with well defined clubs. Tentacular club is widened, not bent. Club suckers are arranged in 7-10 rows, approximately of similar size, there are not greatly enlarged suckers. Arms are fairly short, but well developed. Arm suckers are arranged in two rows in the middle part of arms. Luminous organs are frequently present on the ink sac. A muscular septum present in the mantle cavity.
Juvenile. Description not available. Hatchlings come out as miniature adults (see Lu et al., in Sweeney et al., 1992, p. 21.). The identification characters for juveniles are hence similar to those that are used for the identification of adults.
Remark
According to Nesis, 1987, R. palpebrosa may include a variation or species, described as R. glaucopis (Lovén, 1845) [Rossia glaucopis].
Size
Mantle length 4 cm.
Depth range
Bentho-pelagic, mostly 150-600 m.
Distribution in the North Sea
Northern North Sea.
World distribution
Arctic-boreal Atlantic species. From Greenland and Spitzbergen to the Kara Sea and Canadian Arctic Archipelago, southward to South Carolina and the W Atlantic and Scotland and the northern part of the North Sea in the E Atlantic. Common in the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea; absent in the White Sea.