Australia; QLD
Male blue-lined octopuses - a very close cousin of blue-ringed octopuses - take a little bite out of their far larger ladyfriends to avoid becoming a meal during mating, say Aussie researchers. The team says the deadly neurotoxin named tetrodotoxin, which these little octopuses use to hunt, is also precision-injected into the females' aortas by males during copulation. The toxin only immobilises the females, rather than killing them, the experts add. The team believes males inject the venom to remove the risk of being cannibalised by their much bigger partners.
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