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Genus Enteroctopus''''' at present consists of four species, tabulated below:
Type species E. membranaceus has often been regarded as
type species of the genus, not because it was designated as such by
Rochebrune and
Mabille when they erected the genus, but because it was the first named species in the genus. Robson in his 1929 monograph of octopods regarded
E. membranaceus as a
species dubium because the original description was insufficient to identify an individual species, the
holotype was an immature specimen, and the type specimen no longer existed. As such, the genus was considered invalid until Hochberg resurrected it in 1998. Hochberg noted that Robson had considered
E. membranaceus a
junior synonym of
E. megalocyathus, the second species assigned to the genus by Rochebrune and Mabille in their 1889 description. Additionally, since Rochebrune and Mabille did not actually assign type status to
E. membranaceus, Hochberg concluded that
Enteroctopus was indeed a valid genus and transferred type-species status to
E. megalocyathus based on his conclusion that
E. megalocyathus and
E. membranaceus are the
same species. == Distribution ==