Male blue-lined octopuses inject a powerful neurotoxin into the hearts of females before mating to avoid being eaten, ...
Some male octopuses tend to get eaten by their sexual partners, but male blue-lined octopuses avoid this fate with help from ...
Scientists have discovered that mating, male blue-lined octopuses will inject a powerful, incapacitating neurotoxin into the hearts of female octopuses — to avoid being eaten by them when the sea deed ...
Animals have evolved many different ways of protecting themselves, from prickly quills and razor-sharp teeth to clever ...
"Mating ended when the females regained control of their arms and pushed the males off," the researchers noted.
Male blue-lined octopuses inject females with venom during mating to avoid being eaten, temporarily paralyzing their partners ...
Learn more about the mating of blue-lined octopuses — a treacherous ordeal involving sex, cannibalism, and sedation.
Their venom is called neurotoxin tetrodotoxin, or TTX, and is created by bacteria that live in a symbiotic relationship with the octopuses. The toxin is stored in their salivary glands ...
The male octopus of this species precisely injects a dose of its deadly tetrodotoxin venom into the females to immobilise them during copulation, say researchers at the University of Queensland.