Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:55:13.953Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growth and Development of Spirula Spirula

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

M. R. Clarke
M. R. Clarke
Affiliation:
National Institute of Oceanography, Wormley, Godalming, Surrey
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Spirula spirula has stimulated considerable interest since it was first discovered.

It is a member of one of the two genera of sepioids to frequent oceanic water (the other being Heteroteuthis); it has a unique spiral shell which acts as a buoyancy mechanism and can withstand considerable pressure (Denton, Gilpin-Brown & Howarth, 1967); and, until the capture by the Danish Oceanographical expeditions it was considered very rare, only 12 specimens having been captured. The Dana expeditions caught 193 individuals from 1909 to 1931 and these were described by Kerr (1931) and Bruun (1943,1955). Most of these were caught in the waters around the Canary Islands of the North Atlantic. Bruun (1943) arranged the specimens according to month and size and claimed that two size groups could be distinguished. The specimens were taken over a wide geographical area, in several years and during the months of February (1 specimen), March (40), April (3), May (8), June (1), August (1) and October (23). His conclusion concerning growth depends entirely upon his decision to split the March sample into two year-groups; those above 1.9 cm in ventral mantle length he put in a separate year-class to those below 1.9 cm in ventral mantle length. This division was arbitrary and, one suspects, based on a belief that a one-year life-span was likely.

Clearly the growth of Spirula requires further study based on a larger collection and the present paper is an attempt to fulfil this need.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This work is based upon 256 specimens collected to the south-east of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands by R.R.S. ‘Discovery’ during 1965–68.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , February 1970 , pp. 53 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bruun, A. F., 1943. The biology of Spirula spirula (L.) Dana Rep., No. 24, pp. 1–44.Google Scholar
Bruun, A. F., 1955. New light on the biology of Spirula, a mesopelagic cephalopod. In Essays in the Natural Sciences in Honour of Captain Allan Hancock, pp. 61–72. Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1964. Young stages of Lepidoteuthis grimaldi (Cephalopoda, Decapoda). Proc. malac. Soc. Lond., Vol. 36, pp. 69–78.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1966. A review of the systematics and ecology of oceanic squids. Adv. mar. BioL, Vol. 4, pp. 91–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1969 a. A midwater trawl for sampling discrete depth horizons. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 49, pp. 945–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1969 b. SOND Cephalopoda. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 49, pp. 961–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denton, E. J., Gilpin-Brown, J. B. & Howarth, J. V., 1967. On the buoyancy of Spirula spirula. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 47, pp. 181–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jepps, M. W., 1931. On a parasitic ciliate from Spirula. Oceanogrl Rep. ‘Dana’ Exped. 1920–22, No. 8, pp. 35–6.Google Scholar
Kerr, J. G., 1931. Notes upon the Dana specimens of Spirula and upon certain problems of cephalopod morphology. Oceanogrl Rep. ‘Dana’ Exped. 1920–22, No. 8, pp. 1–36.Google Scholar