Sepiola atlantica. Translucent white body freckled gold and black; effective camouflage over sand.

<p><em>Sepiola atlantica</em> (Orbigny in Férussac & Orbigny, 1840)</p>
Sublittoral inshore shallows, occasionally stranded in shore pools, to 150 metres. Clean sand or fine shell gravel substrate. Sometimes nektonic; fins move like wings to propel forwards or backwards [2]. Exhalent funnel expels water steadily downwards to hover motionless [3], and strongly forwards to escape backwards (mantle-first) from danger [5]. Often benthic during daytime, lying buried in sand [8] awaiting small crustacea. Concealment takes 20 seconds; exhalent funnel blows depression in sand, blown sand settles on top of sepiole; arms move any stones and brush sand to complete cover.
By expanding or contracting different chromatophores, colour can change dramatically in less than a second to provide camouflage [9] or startle and distract attackers, often with dark sienna [4]. Sometimes discharges viscous sepia to distract predator as it jets away. Small crustacea [6] caught by rapidly uncurled pair of long captorial tentacles. Predators include fish. During mating on seabed, male holds female from below and behind while specialised left dorsal arm, hectocotylus, transfers spermatophores into her mantle cavity (TOL image). Between 30 and 150 eggs deposited on firm surfaces in each of several nocturnal spawning bouts spread over about three weeks. Female dies shortly after spawning. Young about 1.5mm long at hatching. Resemble miniature adults with relatively shorter arms and tentacles.
Rossia macrosoma (della Chiaje, 1829) (MSIP)
Sepietta oweniana d’Orbigny 1839 (MSIP)
Sepiola atlantica
Current taxonomy: World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
Gosse, P.H. 1856. The aquarium. 2nd ed. London. pp.58-66(Archive)
Groenenberg, R.S.J., Goud, J., Heij A.de & Gittenberger,E. 2009 Molecular phylogeny of North Sea Sepiolinae (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae) reveals an overlooked Sepiola species. J. Mollus. Stud. 75(4): 361-369
Hardy, A., 1970. The open sea: Its natural history. Part one: The world of plankton.
Marine life information network (MARLIN)
Marine species identification portal (MSIP)
Morton, J.E., 1967. Molluscs. London.
Tree of Life (TOL)
Yau, C. & Boyle, P.R., 1996. Ecology of Sepiola atlantica (Mollusca : Cephalopoda) in the shallow sublittoral zone. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K. 76, 733-748. (pdf).
Body