Go to Neoteuthis thielei: Sucker structure
Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young
Arm suckers:
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The large suckers from arm II (above, left) and arm IV (above, right) have a similar dentition with adjacent, broad truncate teeth on the distal margin of the inner ring that seem to fuse into a broad shelf on the proximal margin. The outer ring is very narrow.
Tentacular club suckers:
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The large distal-manal sucker (above left) was somewhat distorted during fixation. The inner ring has 25, separate pointed teeth that are approximately the same size around the entire margin. Note the lobular inner margin of the outer ring. The proximal-manal sucker (above, right) has a toothed inner ring (largest teeth distally) and an outer ring with three concentric rings of plates bearing knobs.
| The photograph on the right show the relative sizes of the suckers pictured above. Left - Arm II sucker. Left-middle - Large distal-manal sucker. Right-middle - arm IV sucker. Right - Proximal-manus sucker. | 
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Comments
The above suckers came from a squid taken at 14°05'N, 23°12'W in a tow that fished to 1900 m depth (Station WH 494-71). The sucker dentition of all suckers is virtually the same as that of the suckers of the North Pacific specimen.
Illustrations
- Top left - Sucker number 22 from arm II. Photograph.
- Top right - Sucker number 18 from arm IV. Photograph.
- Middle left - Large distal-manal sucker from the ventral medial series, third sucker from proximal end of distal-manus. Photograph.
- Middle right - Sucker from the middle portion of the distal, expanded region of the proximal-manus. Photograph.
- Bottom - Same four suckers side-by-side. Photograph.
All photographs are scanning electron micrographs taken by R. Young.
