New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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Short communication Status of three Octopoda recorded from New Zealand, based on beaks recovered from long-distance foraging marine predators

STEVE O'SHEA

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
P.O. Box 14-901 Kilbirnie
Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract  An uncritical compilation of New Zealand Mollusca by Spencer & Willan in 1996 cites 90 species of cephalopod as recorded from New Zealand waters (excluding the Kermadec Islands) to 31 December 1993. Seventeen of these 90 species are octopods and the status of five is in need of immediate revision. Pareledone sp. and Octopus sp. have since been transferred to the genera Graneledone and Benthoctopus, respectively, although both species await description. Haliphron atlanticus Steenstrup, 1860 (as Alloposus mollis Verrill, 1880), Ocythoe tuberculata Rafinesque, 1814, and Octopus dofleini (Wülker, 1910) are cited as occurring within New Zealand waters solely on the basis of identification of beaks or tissue remains from gut contents of long-distance foraging marine predators. The appropriateness of including these three species in the New Zealand fauna is evaluated in the light of thorough examination of extensive cephalopod collections from New Zealand waters.

Keywords  beaks; marine predators, Haliphron; Ocythoe; Octopus; Cephalopoda; Octopoda; New Zealand

Received 16 October 1996; accepted 29 April 1997

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 1997, Vol. 24: 265-266

0301-4223/2403-0265 $7.00/0   (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1997

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (146K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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