OC'TOPUS (Neo-Laf.. from (:k. in:74,701T , ok 6pous, having eight feet). The type genus of the tletopoda (q.v.), litTering from the squid and cuttlefish in having eight instead of ten arms, all of the same size. and a pear-shaped or sack• like body. The arms are connected at the base by a web. Two cartilaginous stt•lets imbedded in the dorsal mantle are said by Owen to represent the shell. The body of the Toulpe,' 'devilfish,' or octopus, is baggy. short, soft, with no tins. It lives in interstices of coral reefs, among rocks, and the like. The right arm of the third pair is hectocotylized in the male, i.e. the arm is modi fied in various ways, but is never detached and left within the female, as in the argonauts. The be-4 known species is Octopus vulgaris, of the Mediterranean and West Indies, which may reach a length of nine feet and weigh upward of GO pounds. A tropical species (Octopus gran u lat us) is shown on the Colored Plate of ()morons AND DECAPODS. under DECAPODA.
Octopus Rairdii inhabits the Gulf of Maine at a depth of front 50 to 100 fathoms. On the
southern coast of the Eastern United States from Cape Ilatteras down is an octopus whose arms expaml nearly four feet. The Pacific coast spe cies is Octopus punrtat us, which is known to ex pand 14 feet from tip to tip of the outstretched arms. It lives just below low-water mark and is caught and impaled by means of a pointed stick by Chinese and Italians, who use it as an article of food. At times pearl-divers and shell collecto•s on the coral reefs may be attacked and hurt by oetopods, as they are armed with formidable teeth; the difficulty of tearing away their arms and the fright caused by their hideous appearance are said to have resulted in death. The ordinary food of this animal is shellfish and other invertebrates. Consult: Thr Standard Natural 11 istory (Poston, 18S5) ; Packard, Zo ology (New York. 1 S97 ) Cooke, ram bridge .Va tura! History, vol. iii. ( London. 1899).