REVIEW OF THE SYSTEMATICS AND ECOLOGY O F OCEANIC SQUIDS
93
Q. Anomalocranchia
R. Henaenioteuthia
s . Pueocramhia
T. Phusmatopaia
U. Taoniua
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V . Verrilliteuthia
W. Cfaliteuthia . .
X. &feaonychoteuthia
A. Spirula
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XXI. Distribution . . . .
XX. Spirulidae .. ..
XXII. Depth
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XXIII. Egg masses . . ..
XXIV. Growth, size, and form
SXV. Structural variation
XXVI. Parasites
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XXVII. Ecological importance
XXVIII. Economic importance
XXIX. Catching methods . .
XXX. Acknowledgments . .
XXXI. References . . ..
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I. INTRODUCTION
Cephalopoda living in oceanic water include the tetrabranchiate
Nautilus and some members of the dibranchiate orders, the Octopoda
and the Decapoda. The living Decapoda consists of the Sepioidea
containing an oceanic species (Spirula spirula) and the teuthoid superfamilies, the entirely neritic Myopsida and the oceanic Oegopsida. The
present work deals only with Spirula spirula and the superfamily
Oegopsida.
Compared with most animal classes very little is known of the
Cephalopoda and within the Cephalopoda we are more ignorant of the
oceanic squids than of the neritic squids and the octopods. Because
so little is known there is perhaps a need to justify a work of this nature
at this stage. Every field of study first passes through a basic-fact
gathering stage; in the field of ecology this is the stage when species
are described and some information concerning their ecology is accumulated. The next stage is one in which taxonomic revisions and condensation of ecological details are tackled and then the last stage is one
of analysis and incorporation of the conclusions into the general
pattern derived from ecological work in general. Work on oceanic
squids, by which the author means those pelagic Decapoda which live
for at least a large proportion of their lives over deep water, hovers
between the basic data gathering and the revision stages. While a
large number of species have been described, revisionists have been
struggling to clarify the taxonomic situation for over half a century.
The taxonomic tangle prevents any but the most limited analysis of