782 
Fishery Bulletin 96(4), 1 998 
7). No obvious opacity was observed in any of the 
juvenile (<110 mm ML, n-lA) statoliths. Opaque zone 
increment counts on the nine individuals ranged 
between 89 and 135. 
The crystal structure obscuring increments in some 
statoliths of N. hawaiiensis resembled crystals in 
other squid statoliths. They appeared similar to 
structures in Illex illecebrosus, described as “nodules” 
by Lipinski ( 1981 ) or “occulting crystals” by Dawe et 
al. (1985). Similar crystals were also observed in the 
statolith microstructure of the Antarctic squid 
Mastigoteuthis psychrophila (Jackson and Lu, 1994). 
Discussion 
Maturation 
Nototodarus hawaiiensis matures at a relatively 
young age (<150 d). According to our study of trawl- 
caught specimens, N. hawaiiensis may have a life 
span of less than 200 d. This is in contrast to its tem- 
perate-water conspecifics Nototodarus gouldi and N. 
sloanii, which do not reach maturity until 200 d in 
New Zealand waters (Uozumi et al., 1995). Matura- 
tion in N. hawaiiensis appears to be more closely tied 
