Observations on the behaviour of the cirrate octopod Opisthoteuthis grimaldii (Cephalopoda)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2000
Abstract
Specimens of Opisthoteuthis grimaldii were video recorded in a shipboard aquarium and their behavioural traits, such as bottom resting, flat-spreading, web-inversion and ballooning response, were described. Ballooning, as defence response, has been recorded only for cirrate octopod families with an intermediate web (Cirroteuthidae: Stauroteuthidae), and this structure has been supposed to be essential for developing this behaviour. Members of the Opisthoteuthidae family lack an intermediate web, indicating that this is a common defence response in cirrates, expressed in a basic form in the Opisthoteuthidae, offering an illustration of how this behaviour can evolve.
- Type
- SHORT COMMUNICATION
- Information
- Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 80 , Issue 3 , June 2000 , pp. 555 - 556
- Copyright
- 2000 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
- 4
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