Todarodes pacificus
| Japanese flying squid | |
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| Todarodes pacificus (dorsal view) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Cephalopoda |
| Subclass: | Coleoidea |
| Order: | Teuthida |
| Family: | Ommastrephidae |
| Genus: | Todarodes |
| Species: | T. pacificus |
| Binomial name | |
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Todarodes pacificus (Steenstrup, 1880) |
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The Japanese flying squid, Japanese common squid or Pacific flying squid,scientific name Todarodes pacificus, is a squid of the family Ommastrephidae. This animal lives in the northern Pacific Ocean, in the area surrounding Japan, along the entire coast of China up to Russia, then spreading across the Bering Strait east towards the southern coast of Alaska and Canada. They tend to cluster around the central region of Vietnam.
Adult squid have several distinguishing features. The mantle encloses the visceral mass of the squid, and has two fins, which are not the primary method of propulsion. Instead, the squid has a siphon, a muscle which takes in water from one side, and pushes it out the other side: jet propulsion. The squid has eight arms and two tentacles with suction cups along the backs. In between the arms sits the mouth, or beak. Inside the mouth is a tooth-tongue-like appendage called the radula. Squid have ink sacs, which they use as a defense mechanism against possible predators. Squid also have three hearts.
The age of a squid can be determined on the basis of its growth rings, or statoliths, when additions are appended daily to the balance organs in the back of the squid’s head. This species of squid can weigh up to 0.5 kg. Mantle length in females can go up to 50 cm; males are smaller.
The Japanese squid can live in water from 5 to 27 °C, and tend to inhabit the upper layers of the ocean. They are short-lived, only surviving about a year.
Within this year of life, the squid mature from their larval form, feed and grow, migrate, and at the end of their lives, congregate at the mating grounds, where they reproduce. Three subpopulations have been identified in Japanese waters. "The main group spawns in winter in the East China Sea, the second in autumn, west of Kyushu, and the third, minor group in spring/summer in the Sea of Japan as well as off northeastern Japan."
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Wikipedia