Adam, 1962
Mantle robust, cylindrical. Fin heart-shaped, length approx. 50% ML. Four transverse rows of small suckers at club end. Fifteen to eighteen pairs of large central tentacular suckers, diameter approx. 2.5% ML, with teeth of approximately the same size. Carpal group of 2 pairs of tentacular suckers. Length of sucker-bearing part is 2/3-3/4 of total tentacle length. Fixing apparatus with knobs. No rows of finger-shaped lappets on tentacular stem, no cirrus-like outgrowths of protective membranes on arms and tentacular club. Funnel pit with foveola with small longitudinal skin ridges, without side pockets. No photophores. ML up to 44 cm.
Larvae: proboscis rather short, usually 1/2 ML in early larvae, 1/3-1/4 ML in older larvae, usually not longer or not much longer than arms. All suckers on the proboscis tip more or less equal in size. Proboscis division beginning at ML approx. 4.5-5 mm, finishing at approx. 8 mm. Fourth arms beginning to develop at ML approx. 2.5-3 mm; first suckers appearing on arms of 3rd and 4th pair at ML approx. 1.5 and 6-7 mm, respectively. Tentacular ends (dactyli) in juveniles with 4 rows of suckers.
Todarodes angolensis is known from the SE Atlantic, the Tasman Sea and around New Zealand, and in some parts of the Southern Indian Ocean; it inhabits the pelagic realm and near-bottom layers over the shelf and slope. A closely related open-ocean subantarctic species, Todarodes filippovae Adam, 1975, has 12-14 pairs of large (diam. 3-4.5% ML) central club suckers and 4-5 pairs of carpal suckers; ML up to 56 cm. Its larvae are not described but probably are not distinguishable from those of T. angolensis. Another genus, Martialia (one species, Martialia hyadesi Rochebrune and Mabille, 1887), also a subantarctic circumglobal species, is very common in the SW Atlantic, both in midwater and at the bottom. Its larvae are not described.