Two new ‘bottletail squids’ (Cephalopoda: Sepiadariidae: Sepioloidea) from New Zealand, with new observations on Sepioloidea pacifica (Kirk, 1882)

Members of the cephalopod family Sepiadariidae Fischer, 1882 , commonly called ‘bottletail squids’, are known primarily from the Indo-Pacific and southwest Pacific. To date, only one species is known to occur in New Zealand waters: Sepioloidea pacifica (Kirk, 1882 ) . However, researchers have long suspected the presence of additional species in the genus Sepioloidea d’Orbigny, 1845 in Férussac & d’Orbigny 1835-1848 . The majority of known Sepioloidea material from New Zealand national collections was examined; both morphological and, where available, molecular characters are compared. As a result, two new species, Sepioloidea virgilioi sp. nov. and Sepioloidea jaelae sp. nov., are recognised and described. Diagnostic morphological characters include the tentacular club sucker arrangement and hectocotylus structure. Molecular data support the recognition of these two new taxa, with sampled populations of each of the three available Sepioloidea falling within three monophyletic clades following analysis of COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) sequence data. The minimum interspecific distance is 11.09%—far greater than the maximum intraspecific distance (1.57%). A revised diagnosis for S. pacifica sensu stricto is also provided.