Ecology Summary - Vampyroteuthis infernalis

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Ecology of Vampyroteuthis infernalis

Main Ref.	Norman, M., 2003
Remarks	Inhabits deep waters of open oceans (Ref. 843). Depths range from 600 to 1,200 m. This is a mid-water species. The long filaments in pits between the first two arm pairs may be used to feel for or chemically detect prey. Live animals observed in situ typically orient in the water column with the dorsal mantle surface facing upwards and one filament extended well beyond the arms. Disturbed animals pull the arms and web over their body to take on an inverted shape that exposes the black skin and cirri, on the oral surfaces of the webs. In addition to the large four photophores, this species can produce light on its arm tips and squirt luminous clouds from the arm tips consisting of discrete glowing particles, which can glow for up to 10 minutes (Ref. 96968).

Main Ref.

Norman, M., 2003

Remarks

Inhabits deep waters of open oceans (Ref. 843). Depths range from 600 to 1,200 m. This is a mid-water species. The long filaments in pits between the first two arm pairs may be used to feel for or chemically detect prey. Live animals observed in situ typically orient in the water column with the dorsal mantle surface facing upwards and one filament extended well beyond the arms. Disturbed animals pull the arms and web over their body to take on an inverted shape that exposes the black skin and cirri, on the oral surfaces of the webs. In addition to the large four photophores, this species can produce light on its arm tips and squirt luminous clouds from the arm tips consisting of discrete glowing particles, which can glow for up to 10 minutes (Ref. 96968).

Aquatic zones / Water bodies

	Marine - Neritic	Marine - Oceanic	Brackishwater	Freshwater
Marine zones / Brackish and freshwater bodies	supra-littoral zone littoral zone sublittoral zone	epipelagic mesopelagic epipelagic abyssopelagic hadopelagic	estuaries/lagoons/brackish seas mangroves marshes/swamps	rivers/streams lakes/ponds caves exclusively in caves

Highighted items on the list are where Vampyroteuthis infernalis may be found.

Habitat

Substrate	Pelagic;
Substrate Ref.	Norman, M., 2003
Special habitats
Special habitats Ref.

Associations

Ref.
Associations
Associated with
Association remarks
Parasitism

feeding

Feeding type	plants/detritus+animals (troph. 2.2-2.79)
Feeding type Ref.	Hoving, H.J.T., J.A.A. Perez, K.S.R. Bolstad, H.E. Braid, A.B. Evans, D. Fuchs, H. Judkins, J.T. Kelly, J.E.A.R. Marian, R. Nakajima, U. Piatkowski, A. Reid, M. Vecchione, J.C.C. Xavier, 2014
Feeding habit	variable
Feeding habit Ref.	Hoving, H.J.T. and B.H. Robison, 2012

Trophic Level(s)

Estimation method	original sample		unfished population		Remark
Estimation method	Troph	s.e.	Troph	s.e.	Remark
From diet composition
From individual food items	3.44	0.32			Trophic level estimated from a number of food items using a randomized resampling routine.
Ref.

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