Musk octopus
| Musk octopus | ||||||||||||
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Musk octopus in Neum Bay , 2016 |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Eledone moschata | ||||||||||||
| ( Lamarck , 1798) |
The musk octopus ( Eledone moschata ) is a small cephalopod from the genus Eledone . It lives mainly in the Mediterranean, but is also found in a small section of the Atlantic Ocean. The species was first described in 1798 by the French zoologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck .
etymology
The name musk octopus comes from the musky odor that the glands on the animal's skin exude as soon as it is taken out of the water. What this smell is for is still unexplored.
features
anatomy
The musk octopus reaches an average total length of 40 centimeters, with the coat reaching a length of 14 centimeters. The largest specimen found so far had a jacket length of 18.8 centimeters and a total length of 74 centimeters. The weight was 1.414 kilograms.
The ventral pair of arms is slightly shorter than the rest of the tentacles , which are roughly the same length. The arms reach two and a half to three times the length of the coat. The autonomy of the tentacles is lacking in certain sections. The male's right third arm is the hectocotylus . This reaches 85 to 90% of the length of the opposite third arm. The webbing covers 30% of the arm's length and is deeper on the side tentacles. The webbing sectors of the pairs of arms on the back and abdomen are the flattest. The webbing is thin and has a transparent appearance. The musk octopus has a number of suction cups on each tentacle. There are 120 suction cups on a normal arm. In older males, the suction cups of the non-hectocotyledonous tentacles are arranged in a modified manner, so that each arm has 90 suction cups, followed by 30 comb-shaped pairs. The hectocotyle arm has 63 to 66 suction cups. At the tips of the non-hectocotyledonous arms the suckers end in two rows of fleshy papillae or lamellae.
The gills have eleven to twelve lamellae per demibranch . The radula is divided into nine elements. It has seven rows of teeth and edge plates. The musk octopus has a very large goiter, which forms a branch off the esophagus. An ink bag and anal flaps are provided. Ligula , which are located in the tips of the tentacles and make up two percent of the length, have brain-like convolutions.
Color and camouflage
The skin is gray and has slightly rounded, black spots on the dorsal mantle and tentacles. Iridescent green-gold lines run along the edges of the tentacles. False eyespots ( ocelles ) are not present in Eledone moschata . Like all real octopuses, the musk octopus can adapt its appearance to its surroundings. This camouflage is based on a combination of different chromatophores and a change in the texture of the skin.
Way of life
nutrition
The diet of the musk octopus consists of crustaceans, molluscs and small fish, with crustaceans being preferred. Animals in captivity tend to refuse molluscs. The prey can also be larger than the musk octopus itself. Among other species are eaten Maja squinado , Macropodia rostrata , Lambrus angulifrons , Inachus dorsettensis , Carcinus aestuarii , Pachygrapsus marmoratus , Xantho poressa , Goneplax rhomboides , Mytilus galloprovincialis , Sepia orbigniyana , Engraulis encrasicolus , Sardina pilchardus , Mullus barbatus , annularis Diplodus , Merluccius merluccius , Merlangius merlangus , Lepidotrigla cavillone , Trachurus trachurus and Trisopterus minutus .
habitat
Eledone moschata occurs in the Mediterranean Sea and on the coast of the Gulf of Cádiz . It lives close to the coast at a depth of 10-300 meters below sea level and prefers muddy subsoil. Observations of animals living in captivity show that this species is crepuscular and nocturnal.
Reproduction
As with all Octopodidae, fertilization takes place via the Hectocotylus, a converted tentacle of the male. This is inserted into the mantle cavity of the female and transfers the spermatophores. These lie along an open depression on the hectocotylus, which ends in a spoon-shaped tip, the ligula.
Females lay up to 500 relatively large eggs, which are arranged in small clusters of 3 to 10 eggs each. These are connected to each other at the base of the egg stalks. The newly hatched young are initially benthic forms of life.
Medicine, research
In 1949, the Austrian doctor and pharmacologist Fred Lembeck extracted the substance eledoisin , a tachykinin , from the salivary gland of the musk octopus , which is able to make smooth muscles contract faster - not slower like bradykinin .
Musk octopus and man
The musk octopus is a commonly caught mollusk in many regions of the Mediterranean, particularly in the Adriatic Sea and on the coasts of North Africa, Spain and Portugal . In gastronomy it is often offered under the Italian name Moscardino Muschiato , but also internationally as Moscardino rosso , Qarnit tal-misk , Muscardin , Bou msik or Muzgavac .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Worldregister of Marinespecies
- ↑ a b c d e f g Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalog of cephalopod species known to date (p.115-116)
- ↑ Notes on the European species of Eledone with special reference to eggs and larvae
- ↑ Skin as superreflectors
- ↑ a b Octopodidae - Article at Tree of Life
- ↑ Food Preference of Eledone moschata Lamarck, 1799 (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae) in Captive Conditions ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Vittorio Erspamer: Biogenic amines and active polypeptides of the amphibian skin . In: Annual Review of Pharmacology . 11, 1971, pp. 327-350. doi : 10.1146 / annurev.pa.11.040171.001551 .
