SPECIES OF THE MONTH: JANUARY 2016

Phylum : Mollusca
Klase    : Cephalopoda
Orden   : Octopoda
Banay   : Octopodidae
Genus   : Cistopus
Species : Cistopus platinoidus
 
An octopus swimming in the shallow coastal waters of Kerala may not have much to do with the University of Kerala, forget something to do with the university’s platinum jubilee. But one new species of the eight-legged cephalopod, discovered recently in the State’s coastal waters, has been named Cistopus platinoidus, the latter part of the name coming to commemorate the platinum jubilee of the university, during which the discovery was made.

The newly discovered species was part of a distinctive and poorly resolved genus, the Cistopus (pouched octopus), whose member species are characterised by possession of eight mucous pouches in a ring around the mouth between the arm bases. These pouches were previously been termed as water pouches/water pores, but of late they were reported to produce mucous that may aid in the construction of subsurface burrows in soft sediment substrates.
 
The old women octopus, Cistopus indicus, was mistakenly recognised as the sole species in this genus for a long time and the name was applied to all specimens found in the area of southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, northern Indonesia, and west of India. Interestingly, their report also points out that the annual landing of octopuses in India was to the tune of about 6,000 tonnes, with nearly 95 per cent of octopus landings being collected by trawlers.

The paper on the Cistopus platinoidus was authored by A. Biju Kumar and V. Sreeja of Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala, and noted octopus taxonomist Mark Norman of Museum Victoria, Melbourne. The study is published in the latest issue of the international taxonomy journal Zootaxa, according to an official press release from the Kerala University.

Full Paper Link: http://biotaxa.org