''Abdopus horridus'', the Red Sea octopus or common reef octopus, is a species of
octopus
An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttle ...
in the genus ''
Abdopus
''Abdopus'' is a genus of octopuses in the family Octopodidae.Bouchet, P. (2014). Abdopus Norman & Finn, 2001. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=409947 on 2015-02-02
Spec ...
'' from the western Indian Ocean.
It occurs in the western Indian Ocean and the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
. It has a small body and long arms with a complex skin sculpture and pigmentation pattern on the body which it uses to
camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...
itself. If a predator attacks this species it is capable of
autotomising its arms, once autotomisised the arm can grow back in 2–3 months. ''Abdopus horridus'' is the
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
of its genus but within that genus it is rather distinct and lays larger eggs and its congeners, many of which were previously thought to be populations of this species under its
synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
''Octopus horridus''.
[ Abstract]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q13221076
Octopodidae
Cephalopods described in 1826