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Taxonomy: Animalia right arrow Mollusca right arrow Cephalopoda right arrow Octopoda right arrow Octopodidae right arrow Octopus right arrow vulgaris


Description & Behavior

Common octopuses, Octopus vulgaris (Cuvier, 1797), reach between 30-91 cms in length and, like other octopus species, they have eight arms with numerous suckers and no internal shell. It is thought that this species has a number of subspecies, but they have not yet been taxonomically classified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s0LTDhqe5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOV-DlxTiFU

World Range & Habitat

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Octopus vulgaris are found worldwide in tropical and temperate waters. They are abundant in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Japan, and in the Eastern Atlantic in coastal waters between 1-200 m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSq8nghQZqA

Feeding Behavior (Ecology)

Common octopuses, like other octopus species, discard the remains of their bivalve and crustacean prey just outside their lairs into piles called middens. These piles have proven useful to scientists to study the feeding habits of the common octopus. The piles also make it easier to spot an octopus lair and therefore perhaps an octopus.

Life History

Common octopuses lay about 100,000-500,000 eggs, each about the size of a grain of rice, during each breeding cycle that hatch and live in the plankton for 1.5-2 months. The juveniles that don’t get eaten as part of the planktonic food web can live for up to 1.5 years.

Conservation Status & Comments

right arrow Current IUCN Conservation Status for Common Octopuses right arrow Conservation Evidence right arrow NOAA
right arrow UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre: Common Octopuses right arrow Check the Seafood Watch List for this species

Octopus vulgaris is one of the most common octopus species commercially fished for food and for the aquarium trade. Between 10,000 and 20,000 metric tons of common octopuses are caught by commercial fisheries yearly using unbaited octopus pots. The empty pots are simply used to attract unsuspecting octopuses as seemingly safe havens.

References & Further Research

Octopus vulgaris – By Dr. James B. Wood, The Cephalopod Page
Roper, C.F.E., M.J. Sweeney & C.E. Nauen, 1984. FAO species catalogue. Vol. 3. Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species of interest to fisheries. FAO Fish. Synop., (125) Vol. 3277p.
Tree of Life: Cephalopoda
Tree of Life Cephalopoda Glossary
National Resource Center for Cephalopods
Norman, M., Debelius, H. 2000. Cephalopods – A World Guide, Conchbooks, Germany. 319 p.
TONMO.com – The Octopus News Magazine Online

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View related species: Animalia Mollusca Cephalopoda Octopoda Octopodidae Octopus vulgaris