The largest arm suckers have 9-11 sharp different sized teeth on distal two thirds of their rings.

Its distribution extends from the Timor Sea and along the eastern coast of Australia from the Torres Strait south to waters off Brisbane.

It has also been recorded in a narrow band extending north from the Timor Sea through the Indonesian archipelago to Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

There are specimens from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines which were described intermediate in some characters between the nominate form and the taxon treated here as Todarodes pusillus.

[2] The smaller size and rapid gaining of sexual maturity in this taxa may be a result of living at higher temperatures than the related temperate form.