Blue line male octopuses inject a powerful neurotoxin into the heart of females before mating to avoid being devoured according to a new study.
Males have evolved to use a poison called Tetrodotoxin (TTX) to immobilize females, which are usually about twice larger and commonly eat their sexual partners after practice, he told the practice CNN This Thursday (13) the main author of the study, Wen-Sung Chung, animal neurobiologist at Queensland University, Australia.
Blue line octopuses of the species Hapalochlaena fasciata, They can grow up to about 4.5 centimeters, about the size of a golf ball. They are known as some of the most dangerous animals of the sea due to their extremely powerful poison, and several people in Australia died after being bitten by one of them, according to the Australian Museum.
This is the first time there have been evidence of a neurotoxin being used in mating instead of hunting or defense, Chung said. Sexual cannibalism is common in cephalopods such as octopuses, as well as other animals such as spiders and pantry, explained.
Chung added that eating their partners helps octopus females accumulate enough energy to produce eggs and then incubate them by describing males as a “final snack.” But while other species of octopus have evolved with longer mating arms that allow them to maintain a safe distance during the copulation and avoid this destination, the blue lines have a comparatively short mating arm that requires close contact, he said.
Chung, who worked with many different species of octopuses in previous studies, filmed blue line octopuses to observe how they copulate. “They have a very strange mating behavior,” said Chung, with the assembly being the only way males fertilize a female.
Chung said to CNN that the males approached the females from behind and tried to bite them in a specific area that would release TTX on their aorta. Using an approach lens, Chung noted that the female was immobilized and stopped breathing for about an hour, giving the male time to mate safely.
After a while, the female recovered, and none of the females observed during the study died as a result of intoxication, Chung said, indicating some TTX resistance. As for the reason the females do not eat the males later, he explained, “When she wakes up, she is still quite weak.”
Describing the process as “a gender arms race,” Chung said mating behavior demonstrates how blue line octopuses found a way to transfer their genes to the next generation.
Chung also used a powerful magnetic resonance scanner to produce images of the brain brains and organs of octopuses, finding that males had larger poison glands than females, despite their smaller size. He then plans to investigate whether the brains of males and females evolved differently as a result of this mechanism.
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This content was originally published in Male Poly Poison to female during mating to avoid being eaten on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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