Hapalochlaena lunulata

Nutrition

 

Hapalochlaena lunulata is a carnivorous animal, just like an snow leopard!  The greater blue-ringed octopus is a hunter.  One unique way that they go about capturing their prey is they will wiggle one of their arms in the same fashion that a worm does to draw in their next meal.  Octopuses possess a beak that allows them to crack through the shells of the small crabs and fish that they might find.  The greater blue-ringed octopus will realistically consume anything that it has the ability to overpower. 

 

Once again, we see its tetrodotoxin being utilized in its daily life.  Upon capturing a meal, the greater blue-ringed octopus will bite its prey to inject its toxin which at the very least will paralyze its prey.  As one could assume after reading the toxin page, the octopus bites its prey because the posterior salivary gland is the location of the most concentrated and therefore most lethal dose of tetrodotoxin.

 

 

 

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