Octopus

Etymology

The word octopus comes from the Greek polypos , which means several foot S.

The word octopus is of more recent origin and is introduced in 1865 into the language French E by Victor Hugo into his novel the workers of the sea . The word is borrowed vocabulary Jersey fishermen heard at the time of his stay on the Channel Island. It supplants quickly the word octopus in the everyday usage. Its success is such, that it is taken again in Italian with the word will piovra .

Characteristics

The mouth which opens between the tentacles, is armed with a pair of normally invisible mandibles corneas in the shape of nozzle of parrot. The principal heart or " systémique" is relayed by two small branchiaux hearts which pump the blood oxygenated by the gills.

The animal can change the color and the structure of its skin according to its mood and its immediate environment (Homochromie). Its skin conceals contractile million cells coloured, the Chromatophore S, and can also at will cover spots, small horns and other mimetic pustules. The change of color can be a signal, for example, for the very toxic Pieuvre with the blue rings. It has blue and nonred blood as at the vertebrate ones because of the absence of Hémoglobine which is replaced by the Hémocyanine.

Driving back sea water by a siphon, the octopus is propelled to escape its prosecutors like a jet. It escapes by projecting a cloud of ink secreted in its " pocket with the noir". In normal weather, light like a dancer, it drives out while moving rather with the short-nap cloth of the ground, that it effleure hardly of the point of its tentacles.

Doubling its weight almost every three months, the octopus enjoys a wild appetite. Especially fond of delicacies of crabs and shells, it rejects the carapaces and shells of them.

The animal can also maintain a friendly relation with the man. Like some Murène S, it arrives that certain octopuses hold company and even play with plungers, when they are put in confidence, without what they show themselves rather apprehensive.

Lastly, it shows a surprisingly high intelligence for an invertebrate. For example, put vis-a-vis a piece of food locked up in a bottle, it can relatively easily unscrew the lid of this last.

Defense

The majority of the species can discharge a cloud from thick ink and noirâtre to escape the predatory ones.

They can detach one of their arm which will push back.

They can take a silhouette like those of the Poisson-lion or the Anguille.

Reproduction

The copulation of the octopuses can last of one at several hours. Secreted by the internal penis, the pockets of sperm (or Spermatophore S are conveyed by the siphon towards a gutter of the arm Hectocotyle which will be used to introduce them into the cavity Palléale female.

Once fertilized, the female supervises its eggs laid in bunches with the ceiling of a rock niche. For six months, it protects them, airs them, cleans them, without eating. When they hatch, she dies weakened and emaciated.

Species

There exist many species of the octopuses, most remarkable are:

common Octopus, Octopus vulgaris
Octopus with long arm, Octopus macropus
Octopus ocellé, Octopus ocellatus
giant Octopus of the Pacific, Enteroctopus dofleini : its scale can approach 10 Mr.
white Pieuvre, Eledone cirrhosa

Gastronomy

The octopus is called chatrou in the West-Indian Cuisine. One can also call it Encornet. With the Réunion one speaks about Zourit , which one cooks in Civet.

See too

Simple: Octopus

Random links:

Extraordinary commission of the Twelve | Eckbolsheim | Nehebkaou | Canton of Gap-South-Is | The Provost of Beaumont