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Larger Pacific striped octopus
Hraness cites a source capture. The source author remains the source.
gist
The larger Pacific striped octopus (LPSO), also called the Harlequin octopus, is an undescribed Eastern Pacific species known from the 1970s onward and still lacking an official scientific name. Unlike solitary, often cannibalistic octopuses, it forms colonies of up to about 40 animals in soft mud or sand dens from 7 to 100 meters depth, mates beak-to-beak, shares food and dens, can spawn more than once, and lives about two years. Its stripe-bar-spot patterning and prey-specific hunting tactics further set it apart from typical octopus life history.
ideas
- Social dens break the solitary default. LPSO colonies pack dens within a meter of each other and may hold up to about forty animals for life in soft tropical Eastern Pacific bottoms.
- Mating is intimate rather than distant. Partners meet beak-to-beak with suckers touching; females are not cannibalistic in the embrace and leave only surface sucker marks.
- Reproduction is iteroparous. Females can spawn repeatedly, tend eggs in the den until hatching, and the young are pelagic before adulthood.
- Still undescribed after decades. Documented since the 1970s and still without an official scientific name, so the Wikipedia account rests on observational papers rather than a formal species description.
- Hunting and senescence are species-specific. Prey tactics shift by target (arm-touch for shrimp, pounce for crabs, crush or drill for bivalves); senescence lasts weeks in males and months in females.
quotes
“Unlike other octopus species which are normally solitary, the LPSO has been reported as forming groups of up to 40 individuals.”
“these octopuses mate with their ventral sides touching, pressing their beaks and suckers together in an intimate embrace.”
“Unlike most octopus species, LPSO can spawn multiple times throughout the span of their life.”
“Pair bonding has been observed in LPSO through behaviors such as food and den sharing.”