Abstract
The biology and systematics of the squid genus
Asperoteuthis Nesis, 1980, are poorly known. Although there have been four named and five described species in this genus, it now appears that there are only three valid species:
A. acanthoderma (Lu, 1977),
A. mangoldae Young, Vecchione & Roper,
2007a, and
A. lui Salcedo-Vargas, 1999. Using a combination of mitochondrial DNA sequences (cytochrome
c oxidase subunit I [COI], 16S rRNA, and 12S rRNA) and morphology,
A. nesisi Arkhipkin & Laptikhovsky, 2008, and Clarke’s (1980) ‘?
Mastigoteuthis A’ both appear to be junior synonyms of
A. lui. The most distinctive feature of this species is the aboral tentacle club photophore distribution, which is chiral, with more photophores dorsally (∼11–16) than ventrally (∼9–12). Genetically, there is low intraspecific variation within
A. lui and higher interspecific variation between this species and other chiroteuthids. Previously only known from the type description,
A. lui now appears to have a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Ocean and is the most commonly encountered
Asperoteuthis species in the diet of marine predators.