Description
The European squid has a long, moderately slender and cylindrical body, and rhomboid fins that comprise two-thirds of the mantle length. The posterior border is slightly concave. The head is relatively small and has large eyes which are covered with a transparent membrane. Like almost all squid, this species has ten limbs surrounding the mouth and beak: eight are relatively short arms, and two, which form the tentacles, are long, as they are used to catch prey. The fourth left arm of males is a hectocotylus. The European squid can grow up to 30–40 cm in the mantle length, but more usually they are 15–25 cm long. The males are generally bigger than the females and exhibit more rapid rates of growth.
The colour of the European squid is greyish-transparent or reddish, depending on the expansion of chromatophores in the dermis. Males have small chromatophores on their mantle.
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