Guidelines for taxonomic descriptions of cephalopod species

Abstract

This paper presents a format of guidelines considered necessary for the description (or redescription) of species of cephalopods. These guidelines or standards include specific requirements for descriptive characters of species within the order Sepioidea, Teuthoidea and Octopoda as well as general inforamation, e.g. synonymy, locality, etc. Standards are given for descriptions, counts of measurements, and illustrations. Appendices list definitions of counts, measurements, and indices; diagramatically illustrate standard measurements; and give examples from the literature of descriptions that approach these standards.