Todarodes pusillus Dunning 1988

Todarodes pacificus pusillus Dunning, 1988

DIAGNOSIS.—Fin length 25%–31% ML; medial manus sucker rings with 16–18 long, pointed teeth; manus with 6–8 quadriserial sucker rows.

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION.—Dunning, 1988a:149.

TYPE LOCALITY.—Timor Sea, northeast Indian Ocean, 13°48′S, 124° 19′E, bottom depth 102 m.

DEPOSITION OF TYPES.—Holotype: Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, male, 65 mm ML, 28 Mar 1981.

Paratypes: Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 1 female, 64 mm ML, Timor Sea, 8°53′S, 135°10′E,27 Jun 1981; 1 male, 63 mm ML, Timor Sea, 9°52′S, 129°12′E, 9 Jul 1980. Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia, 1 female, 69 mm ML, off southern Queensland, 27°S, 153°45′E, 5 Mar 1983; 1 male, 62 mm ML, off southern Queensland, 27°S, 153°45′E,27 Feb 1983; 1 male, 53 mm ML, Northwest Shelf, 19°04′S, 118°57′E, 29 Aug 1983; 1 male, 68 mm ML, Coral Sea, 17°46.2′S, 146°50.2′E, 30 Nov 1985; 1 female, 74 mm ML, Coral Sea, 17°16.1′S, 146°41.5′E, 1 Dec 1985. National Science Museum, Tokyo, 1 male, 53 mm ML, 1 female, 61 mm ML, Northwest Shelf, 19°31′S, 116°02′E, 13 Oct 1983.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.—Continental shelf and upper continental slope off northern Australia.

Todarodes pacificus pusillus Dunning, 1988

The Japanese common squid, T. pacificus Steenstrup, 1880, was described from specimens collected east of Hokkaido, and subsequent workers have considered it restricted to temperate shelf and upper slope waters in the northern North Pacific, principally around Japan (Wormuth, 1976; Okutani, 1983). Todarodes pacificus has occasionally been reported from the South China Sea, around Hong Kong, and from the southern Philippines, and a subspecies was recently described from northern Australian waters (Dunning, 1988a).

Todarodes p. pusillus has been reported from demersal trawl catches between 17°16′S and 27°S off the eastern Australian coast, where bottom depths vary from 78 m to 357 m. Todarodes p. pacificus is not generally abundant around Japan where temperatures at 50 m depth exceed 15°C; however, it has been caught where temperatures were as low as 5° C. In contrast, T. p. pusillus was caught in northern Australian shelf waters where temperatures at 50 m depth were in excess of 23° C and sea surface temperatures reached 29° C in summer (Dunning, 1988a).