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iNat·644369GenusMollusca86 field observations
  1. Animals
  2. ›Molluscs
  3. ›Cephalopods
  4. ›Octopuses, Squids, and Cuttlefishes
  5. ›Octopuses and Vampire Squids
  6. ›Octopuses
  7. ›Incirrate Octopuses
  8. ›Typical Octopuses, Giant Octopuses, and Allies
  9. ›Typical Octopuses
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Pouched Octopuses

Cistopus

Cistopus is a genus of octopuses in the family Octopodidae from the Indo-Pacific region, colloquially known as old-lady octopuses. For a long time it was thought that Cistopus was monotypic with the type species, C. indicus, being the only known species. This species was characterised by the possession of eight small mucus filled pouches around the animal's mouth in the web between the bases of each arm, these have an opening which releases the mucus. The...

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4 branches of this genus, most-observed first

Old-woman Octopus

speciesCistopus indicus

Chinese Pouched Octopus

speciesCistopus chinensis

Taiwan Pouched Octopus

speciesCistopus taiwanicus

Cistopus platinoidus

speciesCistopus platinoidus

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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Every page naming Cistopus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 644369.