Abdopus aculeatus
Algae Octopus
©Roy Caldwell: A female Abdopus aculeatus mating. The male is out of view at bottom right; his heterocotylus is inserted into her mantle.
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Mollusca
Class
Cephalopoda
Order
Octopoda
Family
Octopodidae
Genus
Abdopus
Species
Abdopus aculeatus
Colours
Distinguishing features
This small octopus is active during the day, found mostly on intertidal reef flats. It can create very effective camouflage using both colour and texture.
Size
- Up to 6 cm (Body)
- Up to 30 cm (Arms)
Synonyms
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
Behaviour
Mating can occur at a distance, allowing both male and female to remain safely in separate crevices. The males extends a modified arm to the female along which sperm packages are sent.
This species can walk bipedally (on two of its arms) (Huffard et al, 2005), a feat previously thought to be impossible in the absence of a hard skeleton.
It can also cleave an arm neatly at its base to distract a predator.
Web resources
References
- Huffard, C. (2005). The behavioral ecology and locomotion of Abdopus aculeatus (d'Orbigny, 1834), Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley. LIRS catalog number 950.
- Huffard, C.L. (2006). Locomotion by Abdopus aculeatus (Cephalopoda: octopodidae): walking the line between primary and secondary defences, Journal of Experimental Biology, 209: 3697-3707. LIRS catalog number 1098.
- Huffard, C.L. (2007). Ethogram of Abdopus aculeatus (d'Orbigny, 1834) (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae): can behavioural characters inform octopodid taxonomy and systematics? Journal of Molluscan Studies, 73: 185-193. LIRS catalog number 1093.
- View all references