194 Bulletin, Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. TV 



ida, 1923. One very young specimen, Cualeo Reales Channel, Cuba, 

 February 18, 1923. One large octopus, caught by hand in rock crev- 

 ice, Miami, Florida, no. 10, lot B. One very large specimen, Monaco 

 Harbor, Mediterranean Sea. 



Habits : This octopus makes its home in rock crevices and is entirely 

 carnivorous. It is of about one-quarter-inch body length when it 

 escapes from the egg capsule. One mother will lay about 800 to 1000 

 eggs at a brood ; each egg is encased in a thin capsule, and all of these 

 are connected by a flexible gelatin-like rope, which is fastened in some 

 protected rock crevice. The mother tends these, blowing water on them 

 through her funnel, cleansing and aerating them. The above record 

 of a mother and her brood appears to be the first capture of practically 

 an entire brood, reliably establishing the large progeny of one mother. 

 It is most interesting to note the practically identical development of 

 these young octopi. Only thirteen of the five hundred and twenty-two 

 were appreciably larger than the others, while the seven remaining 

 partially within the capsules were but a trifle smaller than the rest. 



Color: In life this species is ordinarily purplish but is capable of 

 changing its color very rapidly, either to assume the color of its sur- 

 roundings or, under excitement, to frighten its prey. I have watched 

 specimens which we kept alive for several months in the Miami, Flor- 

 ida, Aquarium with much interest. When resting or sleeping in the 

 rock crevices the octopus would assume a dull reddish gray or brown, 

 similar to the sand or rock on which it was resting and would retain 

 this color for an observed period of as much as four hours. But the 

 slightest disturbance of the animal would prompt a quick change of 

 color, dull purplish red being the usual color under excitement. In 

 battle with another octopus or a large spiny lobster (Panulirus argus 

 Latreille), this purplish red would become intensified, then receding, 

 passing over the octopus' body in recurrent waves. If this, combined 

 with the sinuous motions of the arms, failed to frighten the foe, dis- 

 charge of ink from the ink-sac would next be practiced, the ink being 

 discharged in as many as six separate ejections, the second discharge 

 replacing the discoloration of the first discharge as the latter faded, 

 and so forth. I have also seen these octopi, when robbed of their rocky 

 crevices and placed in a clear sunlit tank with whitish coral sand bot- 

 tom, fade themselves into this background by assuming a creamy color. 

 I have also seen the octopi quite frequently in the Bay Biscayne rest- 

 ing on the bottom with the umbrella spread sucker side up, the con- 

 tour of the arms half buried in the sand. 



