I love octopuses, and it's always struck me as very sad that such beautiful, intelligent creatures are so short-lived. The males die in the months after mating, which in some species involves detaching their hectocotylus (a modified arm used for spermatophore transfer). The females guard their eggs until they hatch and then die of starvation.
That's why I was so happy to read this article about the larger pacific striped octopus, an unusual species in which the females can brood multiple clutches of eggs over her lifetime. These octopuses are also unusually social and can live in groups of up to 40, such odd behaviour that when they were first described, cephalopod biologists didn't believe it and the paper failed peer review.
There is more information and some great pictures at the link, and a heart-wrenching description here of keeping octopuses.
By the way, it's only a coincidence that my first two posts here have been about the Pacific Ocean!
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