Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T14:18:39.189Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Documentation of the mimic octopus Thaumoctopus mimicus in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2013

Darren J. Coker*
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4812, Australia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: D.J. Coker, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4812, Australia email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

A mimic octopus Thaumoctopus mimicus is documented for the first time in Australian waters off Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia during a low tide on 4 June 2012. One adult was found and this suggests that their geographical distribution is larger than currently documented.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Hanlon, R.T., Conroy, L.A. and Forsythe, J.W. (2008) Mimicry and foraging behaviour of two tropical sand-flat octopus species off North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 93, 2338.Google Scholar
Hanlon, R.T., Watson, A.C. and Barbosa, A. (2010) A ‘mimic octopus' in the Atlantic: flatfish mimicry and camouflage by Macrotritopus defilippi . Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 218, 1524.Google Scholar
Huffard, C.L., Saarman, N., Hamilton, H. and Simison, W.B. (2010) The evolution of conspicuous facultative mimicry in octopuses: an example of secondary adaptation? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 101, 6877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, M.D., Finn, J. and Trehenza, T. (2001) Dynamic mimicry in an Indo-Malayan octopus. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, Series B 268, 15771758.Google Scholar
Norman, M.D. and Hochberg, F.G. (2005) The mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus n. gen. et sp.), a new octopus from the Tropical Indo-West Pacific (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae). Molluscan Research 25, 5770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nabhitabhata, J. and Sukhsangchan, C. (2007) New photographic record of the mimic octopus in the Gulf of Thailand. Research Bulletin—Phuket Marine Biological Center 68, 3134.Google Scholar