d'Orbigny, 1845
Bottom octopuses, some species with planktonic larval stage. Body neither gelatinous nor transparent. Arms muscular, much longer than body, suckers in 1 or 2 rows. Web usually not longer than half maximum arm length. Mantle opening not reduced. Radula not comb-like. Digestive gland in front of stomach and gonad, ink sac (if present) on its ventral side. Right or (in a few species only) left 3rd arm hectocotylized in males. Eggs small or large. Small eggs entwined with their stalks into clusters glued by female to the substrate; large eggs glued to the substrate singly. Females watch eggs during entire incubation period (up to one year). Small eggs (ca. 1.5-5.0 mm) give rise to swimming planktonic larvae; whereas large eggs (ca. 10-40 mm) produce crawling benthic juveniles. Intermediate-sized eggs yield either, depending on ratio egg size/female size. In some species females retaining egg string on arms up to hatching. Most species with planktonic larvae belong to the subfamilies Octopodinae (5 genera, some species with benthic development as well), and Eledoninae (some species of the genus Eledone). All members of the other two subfamilies, Bathypolypodinae and Graneledoninae, have benthic juveniles. Planktonic larvae of bottom octopuses are all rather alike, distinguished mainly by the distribution of chromatophores, the number of suckers per arm in newborns, and the arm length ratio. It should be noted that light (red and yellow) chromatophores fade shortly after fixation in formalin or ethyl alcohol, only the brown ones remaining. At ML 2-8 mm hatchlings of all octopuses with planktonic larvae have short rounded mantle, smooth skin, characteristically covered by bunches of short bristles (Koelliker's bristles), large prominent eyes, and short arms not joined by a web, with 3-4 primary suckers in one row. During subsequent growth and settling on the bottom the mantle elongates, bristles are lost, arms become long and unequal, with many suckers in 1 or 2 rows, a web develops, and color becomes variable. Planktonic stages are undescribed in many species; in some cases the larvae described are uncorrelated with their bottom-dwelling adult counterparts. Thus, despite the large number of genera and species of adult octopods described for the South Atlantic, only 6 species are included here.
Planctonic stages recorded for:
Octopus burryi
Octopus defilippi
Octopus macropus
Octopus vulgaris
Scaeurgus unicirrhus
Eledone nigra