All members of Sepia possess eight arms and two tentacles. Tentacles are retractable limbs used to target and latch onto prey, whereas arms are used for handling prey and producing patterns of light and dark to distract prey. Once a prey item has been caught, the tentacles detach from it and have no other function. The tentacles reside in sheaths that run below the eyes and behind the head, into the visceral mass, where they are reserved as coiled, spring-loaded appendages, waiting to be ejected towards a food target.[citation needed]
A 2023 paper extensively revised the composition of genus Sepia;[3] As a consequence, many species have been split out of genus Sepia, assigned to revived genera or elevated subgenera. Currently, the genus has 58 species, according to WoRMS.[4] A number of these species need further verification, but they are listed below:
^Whiteaves, J.F. (1897). "On some remains of a Sepia-like cuttle-fish from the Cretaceous rocks of the south Saskatchewan". The Canadian Record of Science. 7: 459–462.
^"Sepiidae Leach, 1817". marinespecies.org. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
^Hiden, H.R. (1995). "Sepia vindobonensis (Cephalopoda, Coleoida) aus dem Mittel-Miozän von Retznei (Steiermark, Österreich)" ["Sepia vindobonensis (Cephalopoda, Coleoida) from the middle Miocene of Retznei (Styria, Austria)"] (PDF). Mitteilungen der Abteilung für Geologie und Paläontologie am Landesmuseum Joanneum [Communications from the Department of Geology and Palaeontology of the [Archduke] Johann State Museum] (in German). 52–53: 111–124. Archived from the original(PDF) on 22 December 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2012.