It’s an octopus-eat-octopus world.
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 is done.
Females are typically twice the size of males and will commonly chow down on their sexual partners after coitus.
But now, research reveals, males have evolved to use a venom called tetrodotoxin (TTX) to immobilize the soon-to-be octomoms.
Sexual cannibalism is common among cephalopods — such as octopuses — as well as in other animals like spiders or mantises.
When it comes to female octopuses, study lead author Wen-Sung Chung, an animal neurobiologist at the University of Queensland, Australia, told CNN, eating their sexual mate allows them to store up enough energy to produce eggs and incubate them. He described the males as a “final snack” for the females.
Other species of octopus have evolved to have longer mating arms that give them a safe distance during sex and allows them to avoid cannibalism — but blue-lined octopuses have a short mating arm, and they need to have close contact.
Chung described their mating process as “an arms race between the sexes” to find a way to pass down their genes to the next generation of octopuses.
“It’s a kind of survival skill,” he said.
The freaky findings were published in the journal Current Biology.
Blue-lined octopuses — which can grow to about 1.77 inches, about the same size as a golf ball — are known to be one of the most dangerous animals in the sea because of the venom.
Several people in Australia have died after being bitten by one due to the extreme power of the venom, according to the Australian Museum in Sydney, but Chung said this is the first time there’s been evidence of a neurotoxin being used for mating rather than hunting or defense.
“They have very strange mating behavior,” Chung said, adding that mounting is the only way for a male blue-lined octopus to impregnate a female blue-lined octopus.
When filming the sea animal to monitor how they procreate, Chung noted that the males approach the females from behind and bite them in a specific area — that would allow the TTX to get into their aorta.
The female would then be immobilized and stop breathing for about an hour, giving the male ample time to reach completion without being eaten.
After a time, the female would wake up “quite weak,” Chung said.
None of the females died as a result of the TXX during the study — showing that there might be a resistance to the toxin.
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