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Callistoctopus macropus

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Atlantic white-spotted octopus
Octopus macropus.jpg
Callistoctopus macropus
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Octopoda
Family: Octopodidae
Genus: Callistoctopus
Species:
C. macropus
Binomial name
Callistoctopus macropus
(Risso, 1826)
Synonyms
  • Octopus alderii Verany, 1851
  • Octopus didynamus Rafinesque, 1814
  • Octopus frayedus Rafinesque, 1814
  • Octopus granosus Blainville, 1826
  • Octopus leschenaultii d'Orbigny, 1826 (dubious synonym)
  • Octopus longimanus Férussac, 1839 in Férussac & d'Orbigny, 1834–1848
  • Octopus macropodus SanGiovanni, 1829
  • Octopus macropus Risso, 1826
  • Octopus verrilli palliata Robson, 1929
  • Polypus macropus (Risso, 1826)
  • Tremoctopus scalenus Hoyle, 1904

Callistoctopus macropus, also known as the Atlantic white-spotted octopus, white-spotted octopus,[2][3] grass octopus or grass scuttle, is a species of octopus found in shallow areas of the Mediterranean Sea, the warmer parts of the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Indo-Pacific region. This octopus feeds on small organisms which lurk among the branches of corals.

Discover more about Callistoctopus macropus related topics

Octopus

Octopus

An octopus is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda. The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like other cephalopods, an octopus is bilaterally symmetric with two eyes and a beaked mouth at the center point of the eight limbs. The soft body can radically alter its shape, enabling octopuses to squeeze through small gaps. They trail their eight appendages behind them as they swim. The siphon is used both for respiration and for locomotion, by expelling a jet of water. Octopuses have a complex nervous system and excellent sight, and are among the most intelligent and behaviourally diverse of all invertebrates.

Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant in Western Asia. The Mediterranean has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.

Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles starting with Cuba, to the east by the Lesser Antilles, and to the south by the northern coast of South America. The Gulf of Mexico lies to the northwest.

Coral

Coral

Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.

Description

Callistoctopus macropus grows to a mantle length of 20 cm (8 in) with a total length of 150 cm (59 in). The first pair of arms are a metre or so long, and are much longer than the remaining three pairs. The arms are all connected by a shallow web. This octopus is red, with white blotches on its body, and paired white spots on its arms. When it is disturbed, its colour becomes more intense, deimatic behaviour which may make it appear threatening to a potential predator.[4]

Distribution and habitat

Populations of Callistoctopus macropus form a species complex found in the Mediterranean Sea, the temperate and tropical Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is also present in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It lives near the shore at depths down to about 17 m (56 ft). Its favoured habitat is sand, rubble or seagrass meadows, and it sometimes buries itself under the sand.[4]

Ecology

Callistoctopus macropus
Callistoctopus macropus

Callistoctopus macropus is more fastidious in its diet than is the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), a species with which it shares some of its range and which feeds by day.[5] Callistoctopus macropus, by contrast, feeds by night.[4] Its method of feeding is to move from one clump of branching coral to another, often Acropora or Stylophora spp.. The octopus wraps its mantle around a coral head and probes with its arms among the branches, searching for the small fish and invertebrates that seek protection there. It has been found that a number of groupers (family Serranidae) and other predatory fish associate with the octopus when it is feeding, pouncing on small organisms that are flushed from the coral head by the octopus.[6]

For many years, the breeding habits of this octopus were not known. Then a female was observed attaching short-stalked eggs, measuring 4 by 1.2 mm (0.16 by 0.05 in), to a hard surface forming a sheet of eggs. The female then brooded the eggs, caring for them by aerating them and keeping them clean. The female octopus stopped feeding at the time the eggs were laid and died soon after they had hatched, as is common among octopus species. The planktonic larvae which emerged from the eggs were each about 5.5 mm (0.2 in) in length with short, seven-suckered arms. They fed on zooplankton such as crustacean larvae.[4][7]

Discover more about Ecology related topics

Common octopus

Common octopus

The common octopus is a mollusc belonging to the class Cephalopoda. Octopus vulgaris is one of the most studied of all octopus species, and also one of the most intelligent. It ranges from the eastern Atlantic, extends from the Mediterranean Sea and the southern coast of England, to the southern coast of South Africa. It also occurs off the Azores, Canary Islands, and Cape Verde Islands. The species is also common in the Western Atlantic. Training experiments have shown the common octopus can distinguish the brightness, size, shape, and horizontal or vertical orientation of objects.

Acropora

Acropora

Acropora is a genus of small polyp stony coral in the phylum Cnidaria. Some of its species are known as table coral, elkhorn coral, and staghorn coral. Over 149 species are described. Acropora species are some of the major reef corals responsible for building the immense calcium carbonate substructure that supports the thin living skin of a reef.

Stylophora

Stylophora

The stylophorans are an extinct, possibly polyphyletic group allied to the Paleozoic Era echinoderms, comprising the prehistoric cornutes and mitrates. It is synonymous with the subphylum Calcichordata. Their unusual appearances have led to a variety of very different reconstructions of their anatomy, how they lived, and their relationships to other organisms.

Mantle (mollusc)

Mantle (mollusc)

The mantle is a significant part of the anatomy of molluscs: it is the dorsal body wall which covers the visceral mass and usually protrudes in the form of flaps well beyond the visceral mass itself.

Grouper

Grouper

Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.

Serranidae

Serranidae

The Serranidae are a large family of fishes belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species in 65 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers. Although many species are small, in some cases less than 10 cm (3.9 in), the giant grouper is one of the largest bony fishes in the world, growing to 2.7 m in length and 400 kg (880 lb) in weight. Representatives of this group live in tropical and subtropical seas worldwide.

Predation

Predation

Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation and parasitoidism. It is distinct from scavenging on dead prey, though many predators also scavenge; it overlaps with herbivory, as seed predators and destructive frugivores are predators.

Plankton

Plankton

Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water that are unable to propel themselves against a current. The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucial source of food to many small and large aquatic organisms, such as bivalves, fish and whales.

Zooplankton

Zooplankton

Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequently, they drift or are carried along by currents in the ocean, or by currents in seas, lakes or rivers.

Source: "Callistoctopus macropus", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, February 18th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callistoctopus_macropus.

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Further Reading

Octopus

Squid

Cephalopod

Giant squid

Vampire squid

Giant Pacific octopus

Sepia mestus

Common octopus

Marine invertebrates

Caribbean reef octopus

Spawn (biology)

Bigfin reef squid

Leptogorgia virgulata

Pinnoctopus cordiformis

Octopus tehuelchus

Wunderpus photogenicus

Octopus bimaculatus

Bathypolypus sponsalis
References
  1. ^ Allcock, L.; Taite, M.; Allen, G. (2018). "Callistoctopus macropus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T163354A1001383. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T163354A1001383.en. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  2. ^ Norman, M.D. 2000. Cephalopods: A World Guide. ConchBooks.
  3. ^ Bouchet, P. (2014). Callistoctopus macropus (Risso, 1826). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=534558 on 2015-02-01
  4. ^ a b c d Wigton, Rachel. Wood, James B. (ed.). "Grass octopus (Octopus macropus)". Marine Invertebrates of Bermuda. The Cephalopod Page. Archived from the original on 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
  5. ^ Meisel, Daniela V.; Byrne, Ruth A.; Kuba, Michael; Mather, Jennifer; Ploberger, Werner; Reschenhofer, Erhard (2006). "Contrasting activity patterns of two related octopus species, Octopus macropus and Octopus vulgaris". Journal of Comparative Psychology. 120 (3): 191–197. doi:10.1037/0735-7036.120.3.191. PMID 16893256.
  6. ^ Diamant, Ariel; Shpigel, Mucky (1995). "Interspecific feeding associations of groupers (Teleostei: Serranidae) with octopuses and moray eels in the Gulf of Eilat (Agaba)". Environmental Biology of Fishes. 13 (2): 153–159. doi:10.1007/BF00002584. S2CID 45887863.
  7. ^ Boletsky, Sigurd v.; Fuentès, Michael; Offner, Nicolas (2001). "First record of spawning and embryonic development in Octopus macropus (Mollusca: Cephalopoda)". Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK. 81 (4): 703–704. doi:10.1017/S002531540100443X. S2CID 85695823.
  • Norman M.D. & Hochberg F.G. (2005) The current state of Octopus taxonomy. Phuket Marine Biological Center Research Bulletin 66:127–154
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