POULPE, Octopus, a genus of cephalopoda (q.v.) of the order dibranli.ata; having eight feet or arms, nearly equal, united at the base by a membrane, and very long in propor tion to the body. There is no shell, but it is represented by two small grains of horny substance imbedded in the back, one on each side. The arms are used for swimming in water, creeping on land, and seizing prey. Poulpes swim by contractions of the muscular web of the body, which extends upon the arms. They creep on shore in a spider-like manner, with sprawling arms. Like other cephalopods, when alarmed or annoyed, they discharge an inky fluid. One species (0. vulgar is) is occasionally found on the British shores, and is more common on the southern shores of Europe, and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. It is the polypus of the ancients. Its arms are six times as long as its body, and each furnished with 120 pairs of stickers. See CEPHALOYODA.
warmer seas very large species occur; and although the stories related of their laying hold of and swamping boats, seizing and killing swimmers, etc., may probably be fabu lous, yet it is certain that some of them have arms at least 2 ft. long, and there is prob able reason to suppose that much larger species exist, which must be powerful and dangerous creatures. A poulpe, with its eyes fixed on its adversary, and its beak threatening to approach, must have a sufficiently formidable aspect. It was no doubt a poulpe which Mr. Beale encountered on the shore of the Bonin islands, which he attempted to intercept in its retreat toward the sea, and which turned and fastened upon him, laying hold of him with its arms, and trying to bite him with its parrot-like beak.— See The Octopus, by Henry Lee (1875).