The southern counterpart of the bigfin reef squid, hovering in small groups over weed and seagrass and laying finger-shaped egg clusters on the bottom.
Total length to about 55 cm; the maximum mantle length is not given in the sources, and maturity is reached at about 16 cm of mantle. Diamond-shaped fins run almost the whole mantle. It is semi-transparent alive, turns rust-brown out of water, and carries a luminescent streak at the base of the fin.
The arrow squid of the same coast has fins occupying only the rear third of the mantle.
Nought to a hundred metres over seagrass, sand and reef. It spawns communally in shallow water at night and leaves white cylindrical egg clusters attached to weed, which is often the first sign it is about.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
