Little is known of communication among Loligo forbesii, yet the most predominate communication and perception channel is visual, using their large, well-developed eyes to recognize sexes for mating, prey for eating, and so forth.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile
Loligo forbesii is abundant and is not threatened.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
The yolky eggs undergo direct development without the presence of a true larval stage. The eggs are laid in large colorless capsules during the night. The swollen capsules shrink as the embryos develop and, after approximately thirty days of embryonic development, the young hatch, resembling miniature adults, about 5 to 7mm in length. The young maintain a vertical body structure for a period of time, floating and drifting submissively through the water. Growth occurs rapidly for the young during the summer, and the species is sexually mature between the months of June and October. After 1 to 1.5 years, the adults die, completing the life cycle.
This species is very common during specific times of the year in nearshore waters and may prey on small fish and herring important to nearshore fisheries. However, squid are also economically important to humans.
Aside from the obvious use of squid as food, research, and education, an unusual use of these squid is for jewelry: many primitive tribes use the hooked rings of the species' suction cups for rings. Loligo forbesii is also used as fish bait and fish-meal production in the Mediterranean.
Positive Impacts: food ; research and education
Squid are important as a food base for oceanic predators, as well as being important predators of smaller marine vertebrates and invertebrates.
Loligo forbesii usually feeds on organisms smaller than itself, including herring and other small fish, crustaceans, other cephalopods, and polychaetes, among others. Cannibalism is also common among the species.
Animal Foods: fish; mollusks; aquatic or marine worms; aquatic crustaceans; other marine invertebrates
Primary Diet: carnivore (Piscivore , Eats non-insect arthropods)
Loligo forbesii is found on all British and Irish sea coasts, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the East African coast, throughout the Atlantic Ocean around many islands, and essentially in all open coast areas. Migration is seasonal among the species and corresponds to the breeding season.
Biogeographic Regions: atlantic ocean (Native )
Long-finned squid are found in marine habitats, usually near sandy and muddy sea bottoms, but also quite often in clean, coarse sand on the ocean bottom. Loligo forbesii live in waters with a normal oceanic salinity content, usually near-shore regions with warm and rarely cool water, never very cold water.
Range depth: 10 to 500 m.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; tropical ; saltwater or marine
Aquatic Biomes: coastal
The long-finned squid lives approximately 1-2 years in or out of captivity, three years at the most. Natural causes are the common cause of death; adults usually die after a mere year and a half. It is very common for squid to be eaten by predators, explaining why numbers in schools of squid are dramatically reduced during and after migration, falling prey to their predators. Cannibalism is also a very common cause of death of individuals. The large number of eggs produced more than compensates for the high mortality rate. (Wilson 2001, Grzimek 1972)
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 1 to 3 years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 1-2 years.
Range lifespan
Status: captivity: 1 to 3 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 1-1.5 years.
Typical lifespan
Status: wild: 1 to 2 years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 1-1.5 years.
Typical lifespan
Status: captivity: 1 to 3 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 1-2 years.
These cephalopods have eight "normal arms," along with a pair of retractile arms with clubbed suckers on the ends. Their torpedo-shaped, stream-lined bodies with terminal fins often appear somewhat blunter and wider as their depth increases, and enclose a thin membraneous internal shell. The two fins comprise a length of approximately two-thirds of the organism's body and produce a diamond-shape when seen from the dorsal view. These squid have well-developed heads with large eyes that are useful in predation. These squid possess colors and stripes; colors change during the escape mechanisms to a pink, red, or brown hue.
Range length: 12 to 90 cm.
Average length: 40 cm.
Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; heterothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Long-finned squids have a muscular bag behind the head which contains the organism's gills that provide rapid jet-propulsion used to escape predators. When the squid retracts backwards by use of the jet-propulsion, the body quickly changes to a much lighter color, and a bag of pigment opens into the mantle cavity that emits a large black cloud, confusing the predator.
Known Predators:
Reproductive behavior and specific mating rituals are limited to the act of congregating on the bottom of the sea before fertilization. For reproduction, members of Loligo have fused, unpaired gonads located at the posterior ends of their bodies. Specialized glands of the female provide substances for egg coverings and open into the mantle cavity. This species collects in large numbers on the ocean bottom and produces huge masses of gelatinous spawn. The spawn are attached to solid objects on the ocean bottom.
Male squid gather sperm into a spermatophore carried on a specialized tentacle, called a hectocotylus. This tentacle is used to transfer the spermatophore to the female's mantle cavity, and is possibly broken off there. The anterior portion of the spermatophore has a gelatinous substance that discharges explosively upon contact with the female glandular stucture. The sperm are then released into the mantle cavity to pursue the rather large, yolky eggs.
Mating System: monogamous
Females lay up to 100,000 eggs attached to sea floor substrates. Sexual maturity is reached about one year after hatching. Although it is possible for squid to reproduce more than once, they most often don't because of their limited lifespan.
Breeding interval: Breeding occurs yearly.
Breeding season: Loligo forbesii breed from autumn through spring.
Range number of offspring: 1000 to 100000.
Average number of offspring: 5000-32000.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 11 to 14 months.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 11 to 14 months.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization (Internal ); oviparous
Females provide their eggs richly with yolk. There is no further parental investment.
Parental Investment: pre-fertilization (Provisioning); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female)
Loligo forbesii (sometimes erroneously[3] spelled forbesi), known commonly as the veined squid and long-finned squid, is a commercially important species of squid in the family Loliginidae, the pencil squids.
This squid grows up to 90 centimetres (35 in) in mantle length. The long fins are roughly diamond-shaped and make up two thirds of the total length of the body. The colour of the squid is variable, but is usually a shade of pink, red, or brown. The vestigial shell is a small, thin internal structure.[4]
Loligo forbesii can be found in the seas around Europe, its range extending through the Red Sea toward the East African coast.[5] It is widespread in the Atlantic Ocean.[6] It is one of the most common cephalopods in the Celtic Sea.[7]
The squid lives at depths of 10 to 500 metres (33 to 1,640 ft). It attains sexual maturity at about one year old and lives 1 to 2 years, with a maximum life span of about 3 years. It generally breeds only once. The male delivers sperm into the mantle of the female using structures on a specialized tentacle. The female will spawn up to 100,000 eggs, which adhere to the sea floor.[6] Peak spawning season is in January through March off Scotland, with recruitment of juveniles occurring in the fall.[8] Off Galicia the breeding season lasts from December to May, with most mating occurring in December through February.[9]
The diet includes fish, polychaetes, crustaceans, and other cephalopods,[10] often members of its own species.[6]
This is one of the most common squid species fished in the United Kingdom.[11]
Loligo forbesii (sometimes erroneously spelled forbesi), known commonly as the veined squid and long-finned squid, is a commercially important species of squid in the family Loliginidae, the pencil squids.
