This cephalopod mollusc has a long, cylindrical body. Two rhomboid fins run down the animal’s sides for its entire length to the base of its sac. It has a soft body, although it has a thin internal shell, known as a gladius. The head projects from the mantle and the eyes are laterally positioned; ten arms surround the mouth and beak: eight are relatively short and two tentacles are long, with four sets of suckers used to catch prey – fish, crustaceans or other molluscs. The animal is pinkish-violet in colour, with reddish-brown spots. It is widespread in the Upper Adriatic and is a pelagic species, although it can also be found in coastal waters, which it enters to reproduce, laying dozens of eggs in tubes attached to solid objects on the seabed. It is fished throughout the year, frequently being caught with sardines and anchovies, using surrounding nets and especially mid-water trawl nets, bottom trawls nets and gillnets, as well as by amateur fishermen. It sometimes gathers in large shoals to migrate towards the coast during the spawning period, or towards the surface at night time. At first glance it resembles the “totano” squid, except that this mollusc’s lateral fins only cover the bottom end of the body and do not run down the entire of the mantle, as in the squid proper. Its flesh is more highly esteemed than the totano’s. Minimum size 7 cm.