The Southern Dumpling Squid (Euprymna tasmanica) is a benthos bobtail squid which lives in the shallow (0.5 m to at least 80 m) temperate coastal waters of southern Australia‘s continental shelf. It lives for between 5 and 8 months and the adults can grow up to 6 or 7 cm long with a mantle length of 3 or 4 cm. They are found in seagrass beds or areas with soft silty or muddy bottoms from Brisbane on the east coast to Shark Bay on the west, as well as around Tasmania. Southern Dumpling Squid are nocturnal and during the day hide in sand or mud covered in a mucus-lined coat of sediment. If disturbed acid glans can quickly remove this coat as an additional decoy to ink squirting.

Like some other bobtail squid , Southern Dumpling Squid have a light organ fuelled by symbiotic bioluminescent bacteria. The light organ which is butterfly-shaped is in the mantle cavity and is used to cancel out the bobtail squid’s silhouette. There are large semi-circular fins on the rear half of the mantle. Although they can change colour, they are usually an iridescent green or yellow with brown spots. The bobtail squid have four rows of suckers on each arm and both their arms and tentacles are armed with toothed horny rim.

(From Wikipedia, April 27, 2010)