Euprymna scolopes

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Euprymna scolopes is a small (to just 35 mm ml) sepiolid squid endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. While nocturnal like other sepiolids, it is unusual in that it ranges into very shallow water just 2-4 cm deep. Most other sepiolids are found in relatively deep water.

E. scolopes can be found at night nearshore over sand flats by wading with a light or lantern or snorkeling with a dive light. During the day it buries itself in the sand. When it emerges from the sand it keeps a "sand coat" on its dorsal surface which is presumed to give it camouflage when attacking prey. The sepiolid is relatively short-lived, just 3-10 months from egg to its semelparous death. Eggs are 2.0 mm in diameter and laid on the undersides of coral ledges in shallow water. Paralarvae grow very fast; Hanlon et al. (1997) found E. scolopes to breed and lay eggs in the laboratory just 2 months after hatching from the egg. Juveniles are frequently found with adults in shallow water. Adults are sometimes trawled offshore in mid-water in depths to 138 fathoms. They have been reared in the laboratory on live shrimp in Hawaii and on mysids at Woods Hole.

It has been proposed that E. scolopes can become an easily-reared cephalopod for laboratory research projects. Numerous laboratory studies have been done researching its symbiotic bacterium Vibrio fischeri which lives in the sepiolid's light organ to produce a weak light under the body of the animal. This gives it counter-shading and camouflage from predators.