Two new species of Iridoteuthis (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae: Heteroteuthinae) from the southwest Pacific, with a redescription of Stoloteuthis maoria (Dell, 1959)

Abstract

Examination of the Stoloteuthis maoria (Dell, 1959) type specimens held in the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa revealed that the two female paratypes were not conspecific with the S. maoria holotype male and belong to the genus Iridoteuthis Naef, 1912. Based on this finding, Stoloteuthis maoria is redescribed here to properly define the male and female characters. Its occurrence in Australian waters is formally recognised for the first time; the species was known previously only from New Zealand. The Iridoteuthis taxon was found to be new and is described as I. merlini, n. sp. Like S. maoria, this new species occurs in New Zealand and southern Australia. A second new Iridoteuthis from New Zealand was also discovered among the Te Papa collection and is described here as I. lophia, n. sp. The sucker pedicels in males of this latter species are highly and uniquely modified.