Midsize Squid

Alloteuthis media is hard to tell apart from Alloteuthis subulata. The arms and tentacles of A. media are proportionately slender compared to A. subulata but the two species are best separated by the lateral edge of the mantle, which in A. media extends into a short pointed tail of up to 10mm in length in adults. It grows to a total body length of 200 mm long, with a maximum mantle length of 120mm and the females being larger than the males, with the length of the heart-shaped fins, including the tail, is less than a half the length of the mantle. The hear shape of the fins is produced by their convex anterior ends and then their narrowing posterior edges which become part of the pointed tail. The tentacular club is broad and the diameter of the largest of the suckers in the club is 9–14 % of the width of head. The pairs of suckers in the centre of the club are attached at almost right angles to the axis of the club. In males the hectocotylus is on the Left ventral arm which typically has 11 normal suckers in a ventral row (plus or minus 1), with papillae towards the tip. Sexual maturity is reached in females when they attain about 95mm in length and 55mm in males.

Alloteuthis media occurs in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, reported as having a southern limit at Cape Blanc, around 20°N, and a northern one at 60°N in the eastern Atlantic. It is rare in the North Sea with records from the Irish Sea and English Channel on the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. More recently it has not been recorded north of the Iberian Peninsula In the Mediterranean Sea it is widespread and its distribution includes the Sea of Marmara.