Rare octopus shocks scientists with unusual mating and reproductive strategies

There’s little indication of escalated aggression, and mating pairs will even share meals.

According to study lead author Daniel Rokhsar of UC Berkeley and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, the DNA study became necessary because octopuses “are unusual because they exhibit complex behaviors”.

Most octopuses are thought to tackle all of their prey the same way, using all eight arms to capture it. Some poke or prod inside tiny spaces with their tentacles, waiting for prey to swim out.

While other male octopuses mate from a distance to avoid being cannibalized, these octopuses mate entangled beak-to-beak. In other octopus species, the male wraps himself over the female, or remains at a distance, extending only his specialised sex arm to reach her mantle.

This handout photo provided by Roy L. Caldwell shows a LPSO male A15 canteleve large Pacific striped octopus about to catch a shrimp. However, Ross and Caldwell realized make it individuals in fish tank environments between 2012is that2014, getting that is actually currency pairs of men females efficiently mated without ever intense hostility or cannibalism.

A male larger Pacific striped octopus.

Predator routines and social behavior in octopuses have surprised scientists who have never seen a similar display of affection in the species before. While most species are solitary, these have been seen in groups of up to 40 off the Pacific coasts of Nicaragua and Panama.

Between 2012 and 2014, Caldwell and his colleagues observed LPSO and on Wednesday they published a paper in journal PLOS One and revealed what they have discovered.

“This is the only one we know that does that”, Roy Caldwell, of UC Berkeley’s department of integrated biology, told CBS News. The females would then reproduce multiple times. Both are “harlequin” octopuses, so called because of their semi-permanent stripes and spots.

In addition, Pacific striped females mated often and laid eggs over several months – while most other females die after a single brood.

The animals also appeared to communicate with striking displays of coloured patterns. So its discoverer, Arcadio Rodaniche, gave up and the species was never formally described or named.

“Only by observing the context in which these behaviours occur in the wild can we begin to piece together how this octopus has evolved behaviours so radically different from what occurs in most other species of octopus”.