Common name: Orange back Flying Squid.

Scientific name: Sthenoteuthis pteropus (Steenstrup, 1855)

Family: Ommastrephidae

Distribution and Habitat: Usually it inhabits the oceanic warm and temperate waters. Squids move themselves with the help of a syphon capable of expelling water forcibly.

Description: Like all the cephalopods, it characterizes for having a head, bilateral symmetry and tentacles with suckers. This squid has 10 tentacles and presents an elongated and torpedo-shaped body. The squids have chromatophore in their skin and the ability to expel ink as a response to threat. Being a coleoide, it has an endoskeleton, which in the squid is a single plate. The head is approximately two thirds of the bodys total length. It may reach a length of 1 m.

Conservation statute and Threats: Not evaluated.

Observations: The relatively high density and the significant size contribute to a large commercial interest.