Octopus date rape

 

As the article notes, sexual reproduction can be a real pain if the male doesn't get a chance to survive the act.

No, I'm not talking about the movie Species.  This is actually about the species of octopus that featured in the James Bond movie Octopussy.  It turns out that the males have to use a clever strategy to mate with the much larger females.  Unlike Roger Moore, who used his great good looks, charm, wit, and perseverance, the octopus males simply bite the females and inject them with a neurotoxin.

So, I have a popular description of the article and also the actual research article.

First, the popular description:

Sex Can Be Deadly for Many Male Species. Octopuses Have a Unique Strategy to Survive: Injecting Venom Into Their Partner

"Due to the significant size difference, males can’t use tactics found in other octopuses. Some species have developed a longer reproductive arm to inseminate from a safe distance, while others have a detachable reproductive arm that allows them to escape. As such, the only option left for male blue-lined octopuses is to bite the female and inject her with neurotoxin directly."

(The article has a video, which is mildly disturbing, but hey, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do if he doesn't want to be the midnight snack.)

The actual research paper (but to read it, you have to pay for it):

Blue-lined octopus Hapalochlaena fasciata males envenomate females to facilitate copulation

"A variety of phylogenetically distant taxa, including flatworms, mollusks, amphibians, and fishes, use the deadly neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX) for predation and defense1. A well-known example is the blue-lined octopus, Hapalochlaena fasciata (Hoyle, 1886), which uses symbiotic bacteria to sequester TTX in its posterior salivary glands (PSG)2. When it bites, the TTX-laden saliva immobilizes large prey and has caused lethal envenomation in a few incidents involving humans3. Female blue-lined octopuses are about twice the size of males, which bears the risk of males being cannibalized during reproduction4. Surprisingly, we found that the PSG of males is roughly three times heavier than that of females. Using laboratory mating experiments, we show that males use a high-precision bite that targets the female’s aorta to inject TTX at the start of copulation. Envenomating the females renders them immobile, enabling the males to mate successfully."