CEPHALOPODA OF THE GULF OF MEXICO 



By Gilbert L. Voss, Marine Laboratory, University of Miami 



The taxonomy and biology of the cephalopods 

 of the Gulf of Mexico have been neglected by 

 workers in the field of malacology, and conse- 

 c|uently, records and reports are very meager. 

 lA'Siieur (1821) described the first species from 

 this area when he gave the description of Onykia 

 carribaea. De Blainville (1823) described several 

 of the loliginid squids which are now known to 

 occur in these waters, the fact which he failed, 

 however, to record. Howell (1868) described 

 Loligo hemiptera, a new squid from the Gulf. 

 This species has since been shown by the author to 

 be synonymous with Lolli(iuncula breri-^ (Blain.). 



Verrill (1882), in his report on the cephalopods 

 of the northeastern coast of the United States, 

 lists five species, only, as occurring in the Gulf of 

 Mexico region: Sepintfuthis sepioidea (Blain.), 

 Loligo (jahi Orbigny, Lolliyuncula brems (Blain.), 

 Sthenoteuthis pteropus Verrill, and S. bartrami 

 (LeSueur). Of these, L. gahi Orb., which occurs 

 on the Pacific coast of South America and is not 

 found in this area, has been a cause of much 

 confusion ever since as it has been applied to the 

 arrow squid, Doryteuthis plei (Blain.). 



From 1882 to 1934 the cephalopods of the Gulf 

 of Mexico were ignored due largely to the lack of 

 specialists in this field. In 1934 Johnson's List 

 of the Marine MoUusca of the Atlantic Coast from 

 Labrador to Texas appeared. In it, Beny (1934), 

 who wiote the cephalopod section, records 64 

 species within its range of which only 15 species 

 are referred to Florida and the West Indies and 

 only one specificallj' to the Gulf of Mexico. 



Robson (1932) published an account of certain 

 octopods sent him by van Hyning mostly from 

 the Gulf coast of Florida, and this account was 

 followed in 1937 by Adam's report on the Mercator 

 collections and the description of a new species 

 from Dry Tortugas, Octopus mercatoris, since 

 considered by Pickford (1945) to be synonymous 

 with 0. joubini Robson. 



' Contribution No. 121 from the Marine Laboratory, University of Miami. 



The first major contribution to the knowledge 

 of the cephalopods of the Gulf of Mexico was 

 made by Pickford (1945) in her study of the 

 littoral octopods of the western Atlantic. Three 

 of the six octopods treated in this study are 

 common to the Gulf of Mexico: Octopus vulgaris 

 L., 0. briareus Robson, and 0. joubini Robson. 

 The only other published records of Gulf of 

 Mexico cephalopods are a record of 0. burryi 

 Voss from the upper Gulf and comments upon its 

 distribution by Voss (1950, 1951b). Hedgpeth 

 (1950) records Loligo brasiliensis Blain. from the 

 Texas jetties, but this is erroneous, the species 

 involved being Lolliguncula brevis (Blain.) which 

 is also recorded in the paper. 



Thus it is seen that the cephalopodan fauna of 

 the Gulf of Mexico is comparatively untouched, 

 and to date no survey or monograph upon them 

 has been published such as has appeared for those 

 of other areas such as the Mediterranean Sea or 

 the Hawaiian Islands. According to some zo- 

 ologists the lack of published records indicates 

 that maybe this area is fairly devoid of specimens. 

 However, an examination of the material, still 

 unreported, from the Atlantis circumnavigation 

 of Cuba in 1937-38 presents another picture. 

 The large collection made by that vessel and 

 recently examined by the author contains many 

 new records for the Gulf of Mexico and several 

 species which are new to science. Of the entire 

 collection only a single specimen has been recorded 

 in the literature (Pickford 1946). 



Since the initiation by the United States Fish 

 and Wildlife Service of the exploratory fishing by 

 the Oregon an enth-ely new and rich cephalop- 

 odan fauna has unfolded in the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The collections made by this vessel are rather 

 large and at this date (September 1952) are in the 

 process of being worked up by the author. 



From the material so far examined it appears 

 that there is a strong comiection between the 



475 



