(De Lamarck, 1798)
Description
Adult. Mantle cylindrical. Body slender, up to 150 cm, maximum mantle length 73 cm. Terminal fin is scarcely wider than long, tapered to a point posteriorly. Arms are slender, more than twice length of head, angular in section. The right arm IV is hectocotylised (rarely the left arm). Tentacle club is slender, with four rows of suckers which extend proximally down whole of the tentacle stalk.
Young unknown (Wormuth et al., in Sweeney et al., 1992).
Size
Mantle length up to 73 cm.
Depth range
Offshore.
Distribution in the North Sea
All North Sea.
World distribution
Temperate and cold waters of the N Atlantic; also in the Mediterranean Sea; absent from tropical waters.