Scottish squid
We have always said that commercial landings of squid in Scotland consist almost entirely of the veined squid Loligo forbesi, one of the long-finned squid of the family Loliginidae. Sometimes one of the short-finned (Ommastrephidae) species appears mixed in with the Loligo and, occasionally, (as in Shetland) boxes of these "red squid" have been landed. These will usually be Todarodes sagittatus, Todaropsis eblanae or Illex coindetii. All are important fishery resources elsewhere in Europe.
So, for the first meeting of the first eurosquid™ project, held in Aberdeen in January 1990, we collected two nice, fresh, large squid specimens from the local market. The first of these turned out to be a European squid, Loligo vulgaris, one of the very few occasions on which it has been recorded in Scottish waters. This did however allow us to take some pictures to show people how to distinguish between the two Loligo species. These slides are now available as jpeg images and are shown here.
The body shape and colouring is quite similar. Loligo forbesi (top) has more pronounced stripes and is somewhat less reddish in colour than Loligo vulgaris. The most striking difference however is seen at the ends of the tentacles, on the tentacle clubs - see the next picture (below).
Again, Loligo forbesi is shown at the top of the picture, Loligo vulgaris underneath. In Loligo forbesi the four rows of suckers, running longitudinally along the tentacle club, all comprise fairly similarly sized suckers. In Loligo vulgaris, the suckers in the two central rows are much bigger than the suckers in the outer rows.
Picture: Andy Lucas. Scanned by Brian Stewart.