Bathyteuthis inopinata

This is the species that most likely is "Bathyeuthis sp A." of Vecchione et al (2010) and Shea et al. 2017. 

The holotype and paratypes are located near the Cape Verde Islands in the north Atlatnic Ocean.  There are also specimens from the Gulf of Mexico that match in morphological features.

The holotype and paratypes are located at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C. USA.

1. Arm base photophores are absent.
2. There are no trabeculae or protective membrane along the arms with minimal webbing.
3. The arm suckers vary in number by size with larger specimens having between 120-190/arm and start biserially at base and cluster towards arm tip.
4. The arm sucker teeth are pointed with 12-14 teeth per sucker.
5. Arms are short and blunt (~29% ML) with arm formula= 1, 4<2, 3
6. Buccal lappet sucker count is 0-5.
7. Tentacles are long; approximately 3.5x ML.

Figure:  B. inopinata. A) dorsal view; B) arms suckers; C) buccal lappet suckers (Drawing P. Nolan in Judkins et al. 2020, Bulletin of Marine Science)