Pinnoctopus macropus

Pinnoctopus macropus grows to a mantle length of with a total length of . The first pair of arms are a metre or so long, and are much longer than the remaining three pairs. The arms are all connected by a shallow web. This octopus is red, with white blotches on its body, and paired white spots on its arms. When it is disturbed, its colour becomes more intense, deimatic behaviour which may make it appear threatening to a potential predator. ==Distribution and habitat==

Populations of Pinnoctopus macropus form a species complex found in the Mediterranean Sea, the temperate and tropical Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is also present in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It lives near the shore at depths down to about . Its favoured habitat is sand, rubble or seagrass meadows, and it sometimes buries itself under the sand. ==Ecology==

Pinnoctopus macropus is more fastidious in its diet than is the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), a species with which it shares some of its range and which feeds by day. Pinnoctopus macropus, by contrast, feeds by night. For many years, the breeding habits of this octopus were not known. Then a female was observed attaching short-stalked eggs, measuring , to a hard surface forming a sheet of eggs. The female then brooded the eggs, caring for them by aerating them and keeping them clean. The female octopus stopped feeding at the time the eggs were laid and died soon after they had hatched, as is common among octopus species. The planktonic larvae which emerged from the eggs were each about in length with short, seven-suckered arms. They fed on zooplankton such as crustacean larvae. ==References==