Pickfordiateuthis Explained

Pickfordiateuthis is a genus of tiny squid in the family Loliginidae. While four species have been assigned to the genus, only three have been named. No member is known to reach a maximum mantle length of more than 22mm.^[1]

The genus was erected in 1953 by Gilbert L. Voss, who named it in honour of biologist Grace Evelyn Pickford.^[2] Voss placed the sole species known at the time, P. pulchella, in its own family, Pickfordiateuthidae, but this was sunk in synonymy with Loliginidae by Thomas Brakoniecki in his 1996 revision of Pickfordiateuthis.^[3] Brakoniecki also described P. vossi as new and identified a third, unnamed species, P. sp. A. A fourth species, P. bayeri, was added in 2001 by Clyde Roper and Michael Vecchione.^[4]

Further reading

• Arango, C.P. & J.M. Díaz 1996. First record of the pigmy squid, Pickfordiateuthis pulchella (Cephalopoda: Myopsida: Loliginidae), from the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Boletín de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras 25(1): 107–109.

Notes and References

1. Vecchione, M. 2008. Pickfordiateuthis Voss, 1953. Tree of Life Web Project.
2. Voss, G.L. 1953. A new family, genus and species of myopsid squid from the Florida Keys. Bulletin of Marine Science 2(4): 602–609.
3. Brakoniecki, T.F. 1996. A revision of the genus Pickfordiateuthis Voss, 1953 (Cephalopoda; Myopsida). Bulletin of Marine Science 58(1): 9–28.
4. Roper, C.F.E. & M. Vecchione 2001. Web site: Pickfordiateuthis bayeri, a new species of squid (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) from the western North Atlantic Ocean discovered by submersible. . Bulletin of the Biological Society of Washington 10: 301–310.