Blue lines octopus have a problem: The sex that practice is particularly dangerous. Especially for males: being much smaller than females, they risk coming devoured by the latter after the Copulathus becoming a source of energy for grow the brood. To avoid this sad fate, the males of these octopus invented an equally cruel method, as a study published on Current Biology: they poison the female until they almost kill her to make it helpless.
Self -defense against females. The blue lines are just one of the many species of octopus in which females, usually larger, eat the male after coupling: there is a kind in which the males have developed a tentacle especially for the transfer of sperm, so as to maintain a safety distance during the deed. The males of the blue lines have another secret weapon: a series of bacteria living in their body, and that produce a poison.
Is called Carthotossine And it is the same that is found in Fish ball: on octopus with blue lines it has a paralying effect. The male transmits it via the bite, which after eight minutes “blocks” the female completely, even arresting its breath.
Everything that the octopus would have liked to know about sex … Once you have made her partner harmless, the male octopus can pair with her, thus managing to complete the act without leaving the pens. The team that conducted the study observed this behavior up close, noting that poisoned females show some typical symptoms: the skin loses color and pales, while the pupils tighten up to become a crack.
Survival strategy. In short, that of the octopus with blue lines may seem like a war more than a ritual of courtship: she wants him dead (to calm it), he is forced to poison her to be able to mate with her (in the face of consent). Nevertheless The fertilized eggs were regularly laid and have hatched: Obviously it is the only solution that this species has found to manage this complicated sex affair.
