Abraliopsis gilchristi

Cephalopods
IUCN: Least concern

Usual depth60–660 m
Water temperature14–29 °C
Best monthsJanuary and February
How commonRare

About this species

Abraliopsis gilchristi is a species of enoploteuthid cephalopod found in southern temperate waters of the south Pacific Ocean, from New Zealand to South Africa, where it is abundant. It undergoes a vertical daily migration, spending the day at depth and moving closer to the surface at night to feed on copepods, euphausiids and hyperiids. Spawning appears to occur between September and December. It was first described in 1924 as Abralia gilchristi by Guy Coburn Robson. The specific name honours the Scottish zoologist John Gilchrist (1866–1926) who was the first director of the Marine Biological Survey in Cape Town. The type specimen was taken off Cape Town and is held in the Natural History Museum, London.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Abraliopsis gilchristi”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 50 records
February: 41 records
March: 22 records
April: 26 records
May: 16 records
June: 9 records
July: 13 records
August: 6 records
September: 16 records
October: 23 records
November: 16 records
December: 14 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 60–660 m · Deepest record: 2,100 m

0–10 m: 1 records
10–20 m: 0 records
20–30 m: 3 records
30–40 m: 6 records
40–50 m: 2 records
50–60 m: 3 records
60–70 m: 11 records
70–80 m: 8 records
80–90 m: 2 records
90–100 m: 1 records
100–110 m: 8 records
110+ m: 116 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 14–29 °C

12–14 °C: 15 records
14–16 °C: 48 records
16–18 °C: 58 records
18–20 °C: 59 records
20–22 °C: 56 records
22–24 °C: 9 records
24–26 °C: 1 records
26–28 °C: 9 records
28–30 °C: 1 records

Names and classification

Other scientific names: Abralia gilchristi, Abraliopsis (Micrabralia) gilchristi, Enoploteuthis neozelanica

Similar species

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
257 open-data records from 1924 to 2015.

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