#千万IP创科普# Can you tell by the legs? The Minnan people teach you how to distinguish the "three cephalopod brothers"

📙Reading tips: The content comes from the dictionary of Shuomin App, and the pronunciation is Quanzhou dialect.

As people from southern Fujian, how can we not distinguish these seafood?

First of all, octopus, cuttlefish and squid belong to the cephalopod class of mollusks, which is a large family among marine animals and is known as the " three brothers of cephalopods ". What is "cephalopod"? It means that the legs grow on the head.

Cephalopod classification and common species © Traveling Boar

Although the word "fish" is in their names, they are not fish and do not have the characteristics of fish. From the appearance, they do look very similar, such as the symmetry of the body , the location of the feet on the head and the specialization of tentacles , which can easily confuse people.

However, they also have some differences in appearance, and if you observe carefully based on their characteristics, you can quickly tell which is which!

© Traveling Boar

The most recognizable is the octopus , which has eight tentacles . It is a general term for all animals under the order Octaphanidae of the class Cephalopoda.

Although you can easily identify an octopus by the number of tentacles it has, you cannot immediately tell a cuttlefish from a squid because both have ten tentacles , two more than an octopus.

In addition to the number of arms and legs, you can also identify octopuses by their head features . Octopuses have smooth heads, while cuttlefish and squids have fleshy fins on both sides of their heads.

So how do you tell the difference between cuttlefish and squid? It depends on their body shape and bones . Cuttlefish are generally smaller, while squid are larger. Cuttlefish have a piece of white hard bone, while squid have a piece of translucent cartilage.

Additionally, their eyes differ: squid pupils are round, while cuttlefish pupils are W-shaped.

Now that we have mastered the skills to distinguish octopus, squid and cuttlefish, let's sort out the relationship between the names of octopus, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, cuttlefish, squid, etc., so that everyone can understand them better when they are encountered in the future.

The Minnan people call octopus "octopus [ʦĩũ¹ hɯ²]", yes, octopus is actually octopus , named after its eight tentacles. The cold dish at the Minnan wedding banquet - blanched octopus, everyone should have eaten it, right? Octopus balls or grilled octopus are also the main ingredients.

There are more than 600 known species of octopus in the world, and the octopus we are talking about generally refers to Octopus coleus, also known as common octopus, which is the most common type of octopus in southern Fujian.

The squid that we often eat at night markets is the Chinese squid. Rouyu and Jugong are its aliases. The alias "rouyu" can be traced back to the "Pictures of Materia Medica" written by Su Song in the Song Dynasty: "A kind of soft fish, similar to squid, but without bone ears." This is also the earliest documented record of squid. Like the ancients, the Minnan people also call squid "rouyu [liu² hɯ²]".

From a biological classification perspective, squid belongs to the order Lanceriformes, while cuttlefish belongs to the order Sepiformes (also known as Cuttlefishes). The order Lanceriformes is a distant relative of the order Sepiformes and belongs to the same order Decapoda as the order Sepiformes.

Adapted from ©Taiwan Good Farmer

All members of the Decapoda are generally called squids in academic circles , but the squids we refer to in daily life are in a narrow sense, generally referring to a small category under the Decapoda - cuttlefish . In short, whether it is squid or cuttlefish, they are all squids.

In the Minnan dialect, squid and cuttlefish are called “墨贼[ᵐbat⁸ ʦat⁸]”, and some Minnan people simply call it “墨鱼[ᵐbak⁸ hɯ²]”. “墨贼” means “a thief who can spray ink”, which sounds very stealthy and fits its sneaky habits.

Cuttlefish is also called " squid ". For example, the Minnan people often call cuttlefish balls "squid balls [hue¹ ki¹ ĩ²]". However, not all cuttlefish are called squid .

The "Fuqing County Annals" of the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty explained squid as follows: "The common people call the larger cuttlefish squid." The "Jinjiang County Annals" of the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty also recorded the difference between the two: "The cuttlefish has a round tail, while the squid has a pointed tail." From this, we can conclude that the ancients defined squid as: larger than ordinary cuttlefish, and with a pointed tail.

Another name for the cuttlefish is the tiger-spotted squid. Why is it called the cuttlefish? Perhaps it has something to do with the patterns and spots on its body. Some people also point out that the name cuttlefish probably describes the way the cuttlefish swims in the water. The cuttlefish can indeed make people think of adjectives such as flamboyant and trembling, but the cuttlefish is round and plump, while the squid is relatively slender, which is actually more like a cuttlefish.

There is a type of small squid among squids, which the Minnan people collectively call "lock tube [so³ kŋ³]", also called "lock tube boy" or "tube boy". Its scientific name is the suborder Solomonia, and some classifications have upgraded it to Solomonia, also known as Lock Tube Order. Lock tubes have different names depending on their size and age. The juvenile is called small tube or small roll , and the adult is called through or medium roll .

Why is it called a lock tube? Is it really related to a lock? Volume 6 of the Revised Records of Fujian and Taiwan Prefectures states: "The body of the lock tube is round and straight like a lock tube, with a small bone inserted into the tube at the head, like lock whiskers. It tastes sweet and crisp." According to the information, the lock tube has a small bone inserted into the body at the head, like a lock, and its shape is like a lock tube. Its whiskers taste crispy and sweet.

Among the types of ancient locks, the most common is the reed lock with a straight keyhole, which is unlocked by inserting a thin, flat key. It comes in various shapes, including square and tubular, just like the lock tubes in the sea. Based on this, we can perhaps infer the origin of the name "lock tube".

The appearance of soft silk is similar to squid. Its full name is Lai's pseudo-squid. In Taiwan, it is called "soft silk" or "soft wings". The key to distinguishing squid from soft silk lies in the bones on the surface and inside the body : soft silk is slightly smaller, has no hard bone plates in the body, but has wide soft transparent stripes, while squid has a white hard shell inside and obvious patterns on the skin. Next time you see it in the vegetable market, you might as well compare it carefully.

Now, can you tell them apart? If you really can’t, it doesn’t matter. Go to the market, buy all of them, dissect them and eat them, and maybe you will know.

That’s the end of the popular science! After all, the editor is not a professional seafood researcher. If there are any errors or omissions, please leave a message in the comment area to correct or supplement them.