''Paroctopus'' is a small genus 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 ...

es from the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Octopodidae. ''Paroctopus'' are small-bodied; short mantled, pouch like octopuses with short, stocky arms which are 2 or 3 times the length of the mantle. The males have 1-3 enlarged suckers on each arm with their right third arm being hectocotylised and shorter than its opposite arm. There are stylets and these are non-mineralised. One to 3 enlarged suckers on all arms of males only. The

ligula In the brain, the taenia of the fourth ventricle (lingula, tenia of fourth ventricle) are two narrow bands of white matter, one on either side, which complete the lower part of the roof of the fourth ventricle. Each consists of a vertical and a ...

is of medium size with a short calamus. Their gills have 6‑8 lamellae per outer demibranch. ''Paroctopus'' lays small to medium-sized eggs which are on very short stalks and are attached singly in small clusters within the empty shells of

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

s and

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...

s. They are uniformly coloured with little variation in pattern and they lack a patch and groove system. There is a faint frontal white spot complex. The integument lacks large primary papillae. The species of Paroctopus are distributed in the northeastern Pacific Ocean off Mexico and the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

and in the western Atlantic Ocean, the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

Species

The following species are assigned to ''Paroctopus'': *'' Paroctopus araneoides'' * Taki, 1964 *''

Paroctopus digueti ''Paroctopus'' is a small genus of octopuses from the family Octopodidae. ''Paroctopus'' are small-bodied; short mantled, pouch like octopuses with short, stocky arms which are 2 or 3 times the length of the mantle. The males have 1-3 enlarged ...

'' (Perrier & Rochebrune, 1894) *''

Paroctopus mercatoris ''Paroctopus'' is a small genus of octopuses from the family Octopodidae. ''Paroctopus'' are small-bodied; short mantled, pouch like octopuses with short, stocky arms which are 2 or 3 times the length of the mantle. The males have 1-3 enlarged ...

'' (

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, 1937) The species listed above with an asterisk (*) are ''

taxon inquirendum In biological classification, a ''species inquirenda'' is a species of doubtful identity requiring further investigation. The use of the term in English-language biological literature dates back to at least the early nineteenth century. The term t ...

'' and need further study to determine if they are valid species or synonyms.

References

Octopuses Cephalopod genera Taxa named by Adolf Naef {{octopus-stub