SQUID, any 10-armed cuttlefish (q.v.; also CEPHALOPODA), not a sepia or spirula (q.v.). The squids are divisible into several groups and range in size from less than an inch (Idiosepion) to 75 feet or more in length, when the arms are outstretched. They are found in all oceans, and most of the genera are nearly cosmopolitan. The small families Sepia dariidce and Idiosepiide are confined to the Pacific, and the Chtroteuthida to the Atlantic, but the others are practically world-wide in their distribution and pelagic as well as littoral in range. Together these families form the dibranchiate suborder Decapoda. Most of the squids belong to the shore-haunting Loliginidcr or else to the pelagic family Ommastrephidir. In both, the gladius "pen," or "cuttlebone," is long and chitinous instead of broad and cal careous as in the sepias proper. The old European names "calamary" or "pen-and-ink fish)) refer to the pen-shape of this internal support, which is nearly or quite as long as the back, and to the reservoir of inky dye which they discharge when alarmed. In' the Loligi nida' it is flat; pointed in front and has the shaft keeled on the ventral side; in the Ommastre phidce, it is horny, narrow and terminates in a hollow cone at the posterior end. There are many species, both existing and fossil.
The common squid of the north Atlantic coast of the United States is Loligo pealii, which after several years of slow growth be come 12 to 18 inches long. The color when living is very changeable, owing to the alternate contraction and expansion of the color-vesicles (chromatophores, q.v.), but red and brown tints prevail, and the general effect is great beauty. These squids lay their eggs in midsummer in large bunches of long gelatinous capsules on Shelly and weedy bottoms and along rocky coasts. This species is often found in great numbers in summer close to the shore of Maine and northward and many of them are stranded on the beaches. All the squids are caught by
sea fishermen to use as bait.
The "flying squids" of the genus Omma strephes are so named from their habit of leap ing from the sea, sometimes to such a height as to land them upon the decks of vessels. They are met with chiefly far from land; but one small species (O. illecebrosa) is frequently seen in large companies near the New England coast. Verrill describes its attack upon schools of small fishes in which it resembles squids gen erally. All the species are fish-caters and are themselves the prey of larger fishes and of porpoises and the various whales, turtles, etc., of the sea. "In attacking the mackerel," says Verrill, "they would suddenly dart backward among the fish with the velocity of an arrow and as suddenly turn obliquely to the right or left and seize a fish, which was almost immedi ately killed by a bite in the back of the neck with the sharp beaks . . . cutting out a tri angular piece of flesh." They are mainly noc turnal in activity.
To this family belong the "giant squids" of the genus Architeuthis, which occur in Arctic and sub-Arctic seas, and are occasionally stranded on the shores of Norway and Green land, or found in part in the stomachs of cap tured sperm whales, for which they form an important food-resource. These giants, which probably reach a great age and frequently ex ceed 50 feet in length, including the arms, have such strength that they would drag down a large boat, if given an opportunity, and cases are known where men in the water, seized by even small specimens, have escaped with great difficulty. Preserved remains and papier-mache models may be seen in many museums.
Consult Cook,