Eledone moschata, the musky octopus, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of octopus

Octopus

The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...

 that lives in the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

. It grows up to 740 mm (29 in) long, and feeds on a wide range of crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s, molluscs

Mollusca

The Mollusca , common name molluscs or mollusksSpelled mollusks in the USA, see reasons given in Rosenberg's ; for the spelling mollusc see the reasons given by , is a large phylum of invertebrate animals. There are around 85,000 recognized extant species of molluscs. Mollusca is the largest...

 and fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

.

Distribution

Eledone moschata is found throughout the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

, and is occasionally found in adjacent parts of the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

, around the Gulf of Cadiz

Gulf of Cadiz

The Gulf of Cádiz is the arm of the Atlantic Ocean between Cape St. Vincent in Portugal and Cape Trafalgar at the western end of the Strait of Gibraltar...

 and off the coast of Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

.

Description

The largest recorded musky octopus was a male with a mantle

Mantle (mollusc)

The mantle is a significant part of the anatomy of molluscs: it is the dorsal body wall which covers the visceral mass and usually protrudes in the form of flaps well beyond the visceral mass itself.In many, but by no means all, species of molluscs, the epidermis of the mantle secretes...

 length of 188 millimetres (7.4 in), a total length of 740 mm (29.1 in) and a mass of 1414 grams (3.1 lb), caught in the Gulf of İzmir

Gulf of Izmir

The Gulf of İzmir , formerly known as the Gulf of Smyrna, is a gulf on the Aegean Sea, with its inlet between the peninsula of Karaburun and the mainland area of Foça...

, in the Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

. It is closely related to the horned octopus, Eledone cirrhosa, but can be distinguished by a number of features; for example, E. moschata has smooth skin and smells of musk

Musk

Musk is a class of aromatic substances commonly used as base notes in perfumery. They include glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, numerous plants emitting similar fragrances, and artificial substances with similar odors. Musk was a name originally given to a substance with a...

, while E. cirrhosa has warty skin and no musky odour.

Ecology

E. moschata feeds on a wide variety of crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s, molluscs

Mollusca

The Mollusca , common name molluscs or mollusksSpelled mollusks in the USA, see reasons given in Rosenberg's ; for the spelling mollusc see the reasons given by , is a large phylum of invertebrate animals. There are around 85,000 recognized extant species of molluscs. Mollusca is the largest...

 and fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

. Crustaceans are preferred, and species known to be eaten by E. moschata include Maja squinado

Maja squinado

Maja squinado is a species of migratory crab found in the north-east Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea.-Diet:M...

, Maja crispata, Macropodia rostrata, Macropodia longirostris, Macropodia rostrata, Pisa tetraodan, Dorippe lanata, Lisa chiragra, Lambrus angulifrons, Lambrus massena, Inachus dorsettensis, Carcinus aestuarii

Carcinus aestuarii

Carcinus aestuarii is a littoral crab, native to the Mediterranean Sea. It bears some similarities to Carcinus maenas and was sometimes considered to be a subspecies thereof, rather than a species in its own right, but a molecular biological study using the COI gene found the difference between the...

, Pachygrapsus marmoratus

Pachygrapsus marmoratus

Pachygrapsus marmoratus is a species of crab, sometimes called the marbled rock crab or marbled crab, which lives in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and parts of the Atlantic Ocean. It is dark violet brown, with yellow marbling, and with a body up to long. It is an omnivore, feeding on algae...

, Xantho poressa

Xantho poressa

Xantho poressa is a species of crab from the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and parts of the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It is one of four species in the genus Xantho....

, Pilumnus hirtellus

Pilumnus hirtellus

Pilumnus hirtellus, the bristly crab or hairy crab, is a species of European crab. It is less than long and covered in hair. It lives in shallow water and feeds on carrion.-Description:...

, Goneplax rhomboides

Goneplax rhomboides

Goneplax rhomboides is a species of crab. It is known by the common name angular crab because of its angular carapace. Although it is also called the square crab, its shell is in fact more trapezoidal than square...

, Pagurus prideauxi, Ilia nucleus and Squilla mantis

Squilla mantis

Squilla mantis is a species of mantis shrimp chiefly found and fished in the Mediterranean Sea. It grows up to long, and is of the spearer type. It is generally dull brown in colouration, but has two brown eye spots, circled in white, at the base of the telson...

; molluscs consumed by E., moschata include Clamys varia, Mytilus galloprovincialis, Sepia orbigniyana, Illex coindeti, Loligo subulata; E. moschata also eats the fish Engraulis encrasicolus, Sardina pilchardus, Mullus barbatus

Mullus barbatus

Mullus barbatus is a species of goatfish found in the Mediterranean Sea, east North Atlantic Ocean from Scandinavia to Senegal, and the Black Sea....

, Diplodus annularis, Merluccius merluccius

Merluccius merluccius

The European hake is a merluccid hake of the genus Merluccius. It sometimes was called the "herring hake", perhaps because it often feeds on herring and therefore is likely to be netted along with herring...

, Merlangius merlangus

Merlangius merlangus

Merlangius merlangus, commonly known as whiting is an important food fish in the eastern North Atlantic, northern Mediterranean, western Baltic, and Black Sea...

, Lepidotrigla cavillone, Trachurus trachurus and Trisopterus minutus.