Luteuthis


Luteuthis is a small genus of cirrate octopuses from the family Opisthoteuthidae. There are two species classified in this genus on from waters west of New Zealand and the other from the South China Sea. This genus is characterised by having the head elongated with the mantle and funnel completely joined to the head. They are rather gelatinous and lack areolar spots, have a simple web with no nodules and long dorsal arms, much longer than the ventral arms. The arms have crenulated suckers along their whole length and each sucker has two cirra which are about half as long as the width of the sucker. The gills resemble a "half-orange" and have seven lamellae. They have a W-shaped shell and lateral wings which have inrolled margins and which taper to acute points. They have a radula and large teeth on the palate but they do not have an ink sac or salivary glands.

Species

The two species in the genus Luteuthis are: