These moderate-sized squids reach a maximum size of 250 mm (Nesis, 1982). They are cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical waters although Young (1995) suggested that L. reinhardti was a mesopelagic boundary species (i.e., that it is associated with land masses). In Hawaiian waters L. reinhardti is a vertical migrator while L. valdiviae is a deep-living non-migrator (Young, 1978).

Brief diagnosis:

A cranchiin ...

• with two rows of diverging cartilagenous tubercules originating at each funnel-mantle fusion.