Sex Just a Stab in the Dark for Octopus Down Under
 

courtesy of gekkogecko

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Sex is just a stab in the dark for an aroused Australian
blue-ringed octopus.

The Greater Blue-Ringed Octopus found in Australian waters cannot figure out
the sex of its partner until a specially modified arm has checked out the
target, according to the latest issue of Nature Australia magazine.

Copulation involves inserting the arm equipped with a spermatophore, or a
sperm
packet, into the other octopus' body.

Males were equally likely to copulate with other males as females, wrote
researchers Mary Cheng and Roy Caldwell from the University of California,
Berkeley, in the first detailed study of the sexual behavior of the sea
creature.

Most male-to-male copulations ended rapidly in amicable separation, while in
male-female copulations the male was less enthusiastic about departing and
would take more than an hour and a half, to ensure fertilization, the
scientists
said.

At least the ladies kept their 'arms' to themselves. Very dainty and ladylike. :D