Flying squid

The Purpleback Flying Squid Symplectoteuthis oualaniensis (Tobi-ika)... 

The luminous Flying Squid Symplectoteuthis luminosa (Suji-ika)... 

Fig. 6.3.10 The luminous flying squid Symplectoteuthis (Eucleoteuthis) luminosa (photo by Dr. Satoshi Inouye).

Tropomyosin is a protein found in vertebrates and invertebrates, but only the protein from invertebrates has allergic properties. It is frequently found in sea foods, such as shrimps, crabs, American lobsters. Pacific flying squids, and also in some species of cockroaches (Blattela germanica, Periplaneta americand), moths, spiders, and house dust mites (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Dermatophagoides farinae) (Witteman et ah, 1994). 

Some unusual dimethylarsinic acid-containing arseno-lipids have been found in the flying squid, Todarodes pacificus, which is widely consumed in Japan (Ninh, Nagashima, and Shiomi, 2007). 

Ninh, T.D., Nagashima, Y, and Shiomi, K. (2007) Water-soluble and lipid-soluble arsenic compounds in Japanese flying squid Todarodes pacificus.J. Agric. Food Chem., 55, 3196-3202. 

Squids, whales, and other water animals use pressures to function correctly. Birds, bats, and insects also fly in the air because of flow-induced pressures. This is a phenomenon important to many creatures. 

Chitin, the precursor of chitosan, is a nitrogen containing polysaccharide and is second most abundant biopolymer after cellulose. It is widely distributed in the shells of crustaceans such as crabs, shrimps, lobsters, prawns, squilla, etc., as well as in the exoskeleton of marine zoo-plankton, including coral, jellyfish, and squid pens. About 20-40% chitin is present the exoskeleton of these animals. It is also present in smaller quantities in insects such as butter flies ladybugs, and the cell walls of yeast, mushrooms, and other fungi [Fig. 19.4]. However, since the crustacean shells [crabs, shrimps, lobsters, etc.] are waste products of food industry, these are commercially employed for the production of chitin and chitosan [1, 4, 18], It is believed that at least 10 gigaton of chitin is synthesized and degraded and it is also estimated that over 150,000 tons of chitin is available for commercial use annually. 

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