Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION . WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 123 1967 Number 3612 



A Review of the Valbyteuthidae 



And an Evaluation of its Relationship 



With the Chiroteuthidae 



(Cephalopoda: Oegopsida) 1 



By Clyde F. E. Roper and Richard E. Young 



Joubin (1931) described from the Bay of Panama an unusual squid, 

 Valbyteuthis danae, which possessed such distinctive characters that 

 he placed it in a new family. He aligned this family, the Valbyteu- 

 thidae, with the Chiroteuthidae and Brachioteuthidae. Since the 

 original description, no additional specimens of this family have been 

 reported in the literature; Robson (1948, p. 127), however, briefly 

 described, as Chiroteuthis, a small specimen that appears to be Val- 

 byteuthis. Thiele listed the Valbyteuthidae in his systematic hand- 

 book (1935). 



The extensive cephalopod collections currently being studied at 

 the Institute of Marine Science of the University of Miami contain a 

 number of specimens of Valbyteuthis. This material was captured 

 over a broad geographic area including the type-locality. Examina- 

 tion of the material indicates that Valbyteuthis does not warrant 

 inclusion in a separate family, a fact that necessitates a re-evaluation 

 of the systematic position of the group. 



1 Contribution No. 790 from Institute of Marine Science, University of Miami, 

 and Paper No. 60 from Dana Oceanographic Collections. This work was sup- 

 ported by research grants GA-253 and GB-1090 from the National Science 

 Foundation. 



2 Roper: Division of Mollusks, U.S. National Museum; Young: Institute of 

 Marine Science, University of Miami, Fla. 



1 



