Cephalopods of South Australia

According to the Atlas of Living Australia, 26 species of cephalopods have been recorded in South Australia. These include squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautilus. If you have photographs of any of these species, taken in South Australian waters, please contact us.

Genus Species Common name Described
Argonauta argo Greater argonaut 1758, Linnaeus
Argonauta nodosa Knobby Argonaut 1786, Lightfoot
Euprymna tasmanica Southern dumpling squid 1884, Pfeffer
Grimpella thaumastocheir Velvet octopus 1928, Robson
Hapalochlaena lunulata Greater blue-ringed octopus 1832, Quoy & Gaimard
Hapalochlaena maculosa Lesser blue-ringed octopus 1883, Hoyle
Idiosepius notoides Southern pygmy squid 1921, Berry
Nototodarus gouldi Red arrow squid 1888, McCoy
Octopus australis Hammer octopus 1885, Hoyle
Octopus berrima Southern keeled octopus 1993, Stranks & Norman
Octopus bunurong Southern white-spot octopus 1990, Stranks
Octopus kaurna Southern sand octopus 1990, Stranks
Octopus maorum Maori octopus 1880, Hutton
Octopus pallidus Pale octopus 1885, Hoyle
Octopus superciliosis Frilled pygmy octopus 1832, Quoy & Gaimard
Opisthoteuthis persephone 1918, Berry
Sepia apama Giant Australian Cuttlefish 1849, Gray
Sepia braggi Slender cuttlefish 1907, Verco
Sepia chirotrema 1918, Berry
Sepia cultrata Knifebone cuttlefish or Elongated cuttlefish 1885, Hoyle
Sepia hedleyi Hedley’s cuttlefish 1918, Berry
Sepia novaehollandiae New Holland cuttlefish 1909, Hoyle
Sepiadarium austrinum Southern bottletail squid 1921, Berry
Sepiadarium kochii Koch’s bottletail squid 1881, Steenstrup
Sepioloidea lineolata Striped pyjama squid 1832, Quoy & Gaimard
Sepioteuthis australis Southern calamari squid 1832, Quoy & Gaimard

Southern calamari squid

(Taken by Russell Johns)

Header photo also taken by Russell Johns

6 thought on “Cephalopods of South Australia”
  1. Some photos of each species would be useful. I have some Nice shots. I suspect they’re of the southern squid

      1. Yep, you have a list, but no associated images. I read on the site that they would like pictures of the critters listed. I gather from some of the comments that an earlier iteration of your web page did have images.
        I’ve found the iNaturalist app really good.

  2. Russell, your Southern calamari squid image is a stunner.
    (Personal bias declaration FWIW:- I prefer the original common name used by iNat, Southern Reef squid. But iNat has now put that in brackets ie in 2nd place).
    Wrt iNat generally, I’m delighted that you support it by recommending the site.
    I am addicted to iNat, and have found it a far more benign addiction than Facebook, which I quit using 3 years ago and have been happier ever since.
    As for Steve’s asking for photos of as many of the SA cephalopod species as possible, I don’t want to argue with the bloke who does most of my secretarial work on top of his main role as MLSSA President, but I don’t quite understand why you Steve Reynolds would request that such images be sent to MLSSA Inc.
    It seems more workable and simpler for people to put any such images directly onto iNat .
    If they are willing to acknowledge on iNat that they have joined iNat because they had read Steve’s MLSSA article, that would be nice.
    Perhaps by adding that image submission (=that iNat Observation ) to the MLSSA project within iNat which is what I do with every marine life iNat Observation I post.
    Regards to all involved,
    David Muirhead MLSSA secretary

    1. There is no truth whatsoever in the suggestion that I asked for “photos of as many of the SA cephalopod species as possible” to be sent to MLSSA. The request probably came from a person operating under the name of the Marine Life Society. May I now call for people to put any such images directly onto iNat?

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