Splendid Sepia
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Splendid Sepia ( Metasepia pfefferi ) |
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| Metasepia pfefferi | ||||||||||||
| Hoyle , 1885 |
Metasepia pfefferi , also Prachtsepia , Pfeffers Prachtsepia or Flammende Sepia , is a small species of the squid , which has a small, thick, diamond-shaped shoulder without a pointed end. The distribution area in the Indo-Pacific extends from northern Australia via Indonesia to Malaysia in the west and the Philippines in the north.
The type species , a female, was collected during the Challenger expedition in the Arafura Sea on October 9, 1874 at a depth of 51 m. It is kept in the Natural History Museum in London .
description
The animals are relatively small and only reach a coat length of about 6 cm. They are short and stocky with a rounded coat. The dorsal arm pair (arm pair I) is significantly shorter than the other arm pairs (and also significantly shorter than in M. tullbergi ). The suction cups are arranged on the eight normal arms in four longitudinal rows, on the tentacles 5 or 6 suction cups per transverse row. The Schulp is rounded, diamond-shaped in outline and without a pointed end. It is relatively thick and significantly shorter than the coat and sits in the front third to fourth of the coat. The front, upper edge of the mantle is without a tongue-shaped extension. The mantle has six papilla-shaped processes on its back and one over each eye. The basic color is a dark brown with varying patterns of white and yellow. The arms are purple.
nutrition
The animals are diurnal and hunt small crustaceans and small fish . Either they lurk well camouflaged or they cautiously approach their prey on their tentacles and the rear part of the mantle extensions. This is finally grabbed with the tentacles that snap forward like a lightning bolt.
Reproduction
During copulation , the sexual partners turn to each other and wrap their tentacles around each other. The male places the sperm in a small pocket below the female's coat. This can regulate the fertilization of the eggs with the help of this bag, since the egg cells are stored separately from the sperm. Eventually, the female lays the fertilized eggs in the gaps and crevices between pieces of coral and rock in shallower water. The young animals then usually migrate to a somewhat greater depth on muddy and sandy soft soils in order to finally return to the spawning areas as adults. It has been observed that the females defend their clutch against smaller predators such as fish. The life cycle of this species is one year in captivity.
Occurrence
The species lives on sandy and muddy soft soils at a depth of 3 to 86 m. The distribution area of M. pfefferi extends from Mandurah in Western Australia to Moreton Bay in southern Queensland and across Arafura Sea to the south coast of New Guinea . The species can also be seen on Sulawesi and the Moluccas in Indonesia and in Malaysia on the islands of Mabul and Sipadan . To the north, the range extends to the Philippines, where the species mainly lives on the Visayas , e.g. B. on the island of Negros, can be found.
Commercial importance
The species is not used commercially because it is too small and does not occur in masses. Australian researchers have found that the meat of the animals contains a highly toxic toxin , the deadly effect of which is similar to that of tetrodotoxin in blue-ringed octopus . This makes it the only poisonous Sepia species known to date.
literature
- Patrizia Jereb and Clyde FE Roper: Cephalopods of the World - An Annotated and Illustrated Catalog of Cephalopod Species Known to Date. Volume 1 Chambered Nautiluses and Sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae). FAO Species Catalog for Fishery Purposes, No. 4, 1: 1–262, Rome 2005, ISBN 92-5-105383-9
Web links
- YouTube video of a splendid sepia
- many photos of the splendid sepia, also of babies
- Metasepia pfefferi inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: I. Barratt & L. Allcock, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Latitude and Longitude Data for Metasepia pfefferi ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Current Classification of Recent Cephalopoda .
- ↑ a b Kings of Camouflage. Retrieved September 4, 2011 .
- ^ Norman, MD (2000) Cephalopods: A World Guide . ConchBooks.
- ↑ Metasepia pfefferi. Letter summary. EOL, accessed October 8, 2014 .
- ↑ A. Reid, P. Jereb, CFE Roper: Family Sepiidae. In: P. Jereb, CFE Roper (Ed.): Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalog of species known to date. Volume 1. Chambered nautiluses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae) . FAO Species Catalog for Fishery Purposes. No. 4, Vol. 1, Rome 2005, FAO. Pp. 57-152.
- ^ MD Norman: Cephalopods: A World Guide . ConchBooks, 2000.
