Octopus Insularis (Brazil Reef Octopus) Leite & Haimovici, 2008

DWhatley

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Medium to large-sized adults up to 120 mm and 1,330 g total weight.
Broad saccular mantle with muscular wall;
two thick cartilaginous stylets (0.2 mm diameter, 18.8 mm long, in a male of 78 mm ML).
Pallial aperture of moderate width (PAI 42–54).
Head wide (HWI 37–48).
Eyes moderately prominent
Funnel tubular ,
Well defined W-shaped funnel organ;
lateral limbs longer;
all four limbs of equal width .
Arms thick (AWI 9–18), relatively short
Third right arm of males hectocotylized, shorter than opposite one , bearing 96–142
suckers. Well defined spermatophoric groove along hectocotylized arm ends at base of relatively long calamus Small ligula.
Total number of suckers on the normal arms 220 to 238.
Normal sucker diameter moderate.
Mature males with 2–4 enlarged suckers at the 8th or 9th row on arms II and III
Web moderately deep, shallower between dorsal arms; deeper between ventral arms
(most common web formulae C . D . B . E . A and D .
C . B . E . A).

I have quoted the external, non-invasive observations. The pdf gives additional biological detail

MORPHOLOGICAL AND GENETIC DESCRIPTION OF OCTOPUS INSULARIS, A NEW CRYPTIC SPECIES IN THE OCTOPUS VULGARIS COMPLEX (CEPHALOPODA: OCTOPODIDAE) FROM THE TROPICAL SOUTHWESTERN ATLANTIC T. S. LEITE1, M. HAIMOVICI1, W. MOLINA2 AND K. WARNKE3 2006
 
First Record of Octopus insularis Leite and Haimovici, 2008 in the Octopus Fishery of a Marine Protected Area in the Gulf of Mexico
Alejandro Flores-Valle, Ricardo Pliego-Cárdenas, María De Lourdes Jimenéz-Badillo, José L. Arredondo-Figueroa, Irene De Los Ángeles Barriga-Sosa 2017 (Journal of Shellfish Research)

ABSTRACT
The octopus fishery in Mexico is supported by two species, Octopus maya and an Octopus vulgaris-like species that teuthologists have named O. vulgaris type I. The main fishery species off the Yucatan Peninsula is O. maya, whereas the O. vulgaris-like species historically has supported the octopus fishery off the Mexican east coast. Management policies protect this species in the Veracruz Reef System (VRS) in the Gulf of Mexico, where artisanal fisherman catches it; however, specimens of O. vulgaris type I harvested in this reef system share haplotypes with Octopus insularis, and they cluster together in a strongly supported monophyletic clade. The species O. insularis does not belong to the O. vulgaris complex, as it was previously believed; it is related to the American octopuses, O. maya and Octopus mimus. The results indicate that O. insularis is distributed from the Gulf of Mexico to the coastal waters off southern Brazil and imply that the octopus fishery in the VRS is based on a misidentified species.
 
Morphological and genetic description of Octopus insularis, a new cryptic species in the Octopus vulgariscomplex (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae) from the tropical southwestern Atlantic (full text available)
Abstract
A medium-sized Octopus species is described based on material collected in shallow equatorial waters around the oceanic islands of Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Rocas Atoll, St Peter and St Paul Archipelago and the mainland of northeastern Brazil. The new species, Octopus insularis, is described morphologically, and also characterized by the large mitochondrial subunit ribosomal RNA gene (mt 16S rDNA). The new species has relatively short and stout arms, rugose reddish brown skin in preserved specimens, 8 to 11 gill lamellae on the outer demibranchs, small ligula, characteristic symmetrical radula, spermatophore and beak, small eggs and high fecundity (213,000 oocytes under 1.5 mm diameter). The habitats and skin patterns of living animals are briefly described. The new species differs both morphologically and genetically from Octopus vulgaris in the Mediterranean, Venezuela and southern Brazil.
 

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