Statolith morphology of purpleback flying squid (Sthenoeuthis oualaniensis) in the offshore South China Sea

We investigated the morphological characteristics, statolith microstructure and population structure of Sthenoeuthis oualaniensis from 455 individuals ( 427 with dorsal photophore and 28 without dorsal photophore) randomly captured in the offshore South China Sea from September to October, 2012. As statolithmicrostructure examined, great lateral dome and wing dome, small dorsal dome and long narrow rostrum dome existed in both two forms. The mantle length ( ML) and total otolith length ( TSL) were in aquadratic function ( P 0. 05) . Based on dorsal photophore, three populations ( medium-sized population, small-sized population and X3-sized population) could be identified by hierarchica clustering analysis and gray clustering analysis. CD test betweenmedium-sized population and small-sized population shows that the CD record of character TSL, MW, LDL, WL were less than 1.28, which belonged to interspecies relation. The relationships between ML and all of the statolith variables ( TSL, MW, LDL and WL) in both populations were best described by quadratic functions.