"Eight tentacles, 2,000 suckers," "A two-foot-long octopus can have 250 suckers on each tentacle," "Octopus..." "Cephalopod... horrific creature," "THE LOVE LIFE OF THE OCTOPUS" "On coasts laid bare by the sea, some years you find them everywhere," "flabby, without a shell, it slithers at low tide one tentacle after the other." "It can live for some time out of the water." "It changes colors depending on its surroundings and its emotions." "An extraordinary detail,- this simple mollusk's eye is like that of higher animals." "It has folds of skin that act as eye lids." "It nestles in the ground or takes shelter in the tiniest crack... which it conceals with pebbles, sand, leftovers from its meals" "shells and carapaces," "The rippling water is the only clue to its presence." "The rippling is caused by its breathing." "Water drawn in through an opening on either side of its body is expelled through a tube." "Although it can crawl in all directions it swims backwards violently expelling water through its front-facing tube." "A crab scurries along, but the octopus grabs it with its tentacles or pounces on it." "In the center of its mouth the powerful beak tears the crab to pieces and swallows the flesh." "In the spring, some preliminary approaches precede mating, these vary in force, length and the distance kept depending on the size, age, and condition of the partners," "the male typically has several very large suckers." "This fit specimen violently grabs a female, who's not amused." "Perhaps she's already been impregnated." "She carries him on her back." "The skin becomes bumpy and changes color." "The male has to insert the end of his special arm, the third to the right of his head, into the female's respiratory cavit." "There's no officially sanctioned position for doing that." "The small male on the left white from fear reacts to this female's advances while keeping a prudent distance," "the specialized arm introduces packets of sperm into the female's egg-laying orifice." "Mating is repeated over hours and days." "When the male removes his arm he tears open the packets he's deposited in the female, and billions of sperm swim out, here seen greatly enlarged," "they are stored and will fertilize the female's eggs when she lays them." "These eggs are attached to a central string that she hangs from the roof of her nest." "She lays around 30 strÌngs, containing up to 500,000 eggs." "During the month they take to develop, the female doesn't eat or leave her nest." "She constantly fans the strings with her tentacles to circulate jets of water, which ensures that the eggs will breathe through their shells and also keeps them clean." "Each egg is about 1 mm long and reveals some strange stages in its development, shown here speeded up 1,400 times," "first, torsion," "then comes rotation." "The embryo develops... and three weeks later the miniature octopus is clearly distinguishable in its capsule." "Large colored cells begin to play, they continue to grow a Iittle after the rotation stage, ingesting their nutritive yolks." "At the opposite end, the heart beats 100 times a minute," "then they hatch in a great explosion." "In a few minutes thousands of baby octopuses 2 mm long leave their shell." "They bounce backwards, but the respiratory tube may bend, propelling them in all directions." "Those who can't get out now will never hatch."