<I>Abralia</I> (Cephalopoda)
BULLETINOF MARINESCIENCE,49(1-2): 113-136, 1991 SQUIDS OF THE GENUS ABRALIA (CEPHALOPODA) FROM THE CENTRAL EQUATORIAL PACIFIC WITH A DESCRIPTION OF ABRALIA HEMINUCHALIS, NEW SPECIES Lourdes Alvina Burgess ABSTRACT Abralia trigonura Berry, 1913, from the Hawaiian Islands is redescribed and a neotype designated. A closely related new species Abralia heminuchalis from the central equatorial Pacific is described. Material from a new area of distribution for Abralia similis Okutani and Tsuchiya, 1987, is discussed. Material for the rare Abralia astrosticta Berry, 1909, is reported, accompanied by a description of a specimen from the Marshall Islands by the late Gilbert L. Voss. All the species examined are illustrated and compared, and observations on immature animals noted. Between 1967 and 1970, while preparing a reference cephalopod collection for the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory (now the Honolulu Laboratory, Southwest Center of the National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA), over 5,000 oegopsid squids were identified as belonging to the genus Abralia, family Enoploteuthidae. The four species found were A. trigonura Berry, 1913, A. astrosticta Berry, 1909, and two un-named species then. One of the them has been described as A. simi/is Okutani and Tsuchiya, 1987, the other presented here as Abralia heminuchalis, n. sp. Of the more specimens identified, approximately 1,145 were A. trigonura, 2,367 A, heminuchalis, 1,484 A. similis and 96 A. astrosticta. The samples were taken mainly with a modified Cobb trawl, a 10-foot Isaacs- Kidd trawl, or a Nanaimo trawl during the cruises of several research vessels operated by the laboratory.
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