Male blue-lined octopparticipates inject females with venom during intimacy, paralysing their bigr mates to elude being eaten, new research has establish.
The blue-lined octopus is a minuscule, highly hazardous cephalopod establish standardly in shapexamine reefs and tide pools.
One of the four species of blue-ringed octopus, it participates an excessively potent neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin – also establish in pufferfish – to immobilise its prey.
A new study recommends that male blue-lined octopparticipates participate a exact bite to inject the venom into the female’s aorta at the beginning of mating.
Full-sized females are about the size of a golf ball – around two to five times hugeger than their male counterparts – according to the study’s direct author, Dr Wen-Sung Chung of the University of Queensland.
Female octopparticipates are prone to eating their mates, he shelp.
“Sexual cannibalism is very standard in cephalopods.
“When female blue-lined octopparticipates lay eggs, they spend cdisesteemfilledy six weeks without feeding equitable seeing after the eggs. They reassociate need a lot of energy to get them thcdisesteemful that brooding process.”
Male octopparticipates have a exceptionalised arm for mating – comprehendn as the hectocotylus – which transfers a sperm capsule into the female’s oviduct.
Males have broadened exceptional strategies to elude droping prey to their mates during copulation: the argonauts, for example, give up their mating arm and let it drop off after mating. Other species have an eprolongedated hectocotylus.
“The blue-lined octopus’s mating arm is much drop,” Chung shelp. “Unable to do prolonged-distance mating, they need to do a mounting mating strategy.”
The researchers watchd male octopparticipates immobilising females during mating sessions that lasted between 40 and 75 minutes. As the tetrodotoxin took effect, the females stopped bgenuineeang after about eight minutes, turning pale and their pupils no prolongeder replying to airy.
“Mating ended when the females reobtained handle of their arms and pushed the males off,” the scientists remarkd.
None of the females died during copulation, and they fed normassociate the follotriumphg day, recommending resistance to tetrodotoxin, Chung shelp.
Envenomation by blue-lined octopparticipates can be lethal to humans; overweightal cases have also been write downed in green sea turtles in Moreton Bay, who accidenhighy ingested the octopparticipates while eating seagrass.
Blue-lined octopparticipates, enjoy most octopus species, exhibit semelparity, a breeding strategy in which an organism dies after it reoriginates once. The males die soon after copulation, while the females die after their larvae hatch.
Chung called the rare mating technique in blue-lined octopparticipates an evolutionary “arms race” between the two intimacyes.
“Becaparticipate the females became much hugeger and stronger … the male eventuassociate needed to have a definite strategy to originate brave his genes can be transferred to the next generation.”
The research was published in the journal Current Biology.
