blue-ringed octopus

plural blue-ringed octopuses · nonstandard plural blue-ringed octopusses · nonstandard plural blue-ringed octopi · nonstandard plural blue-ringed octopii · plural rare blue-ringed octopodes

1. Any member of any species of the genus Hapalochlaena of octopuses, with distinctive blue rings, that carry the highly poisonous venom tetrodotoxin (TTX).

   1 more example

   In terms of diversity, cephalopods include the egg case making argonauts, shelled nautiluses, venomous blue-ringed octopuses and enigmatic giants like the giant and colossal squid. […] The blue-ringed octopus Hapalochlaena lunulata has tetrodotoxin, the deadly toxin it also releases in a bite, in their ink but the concentrations and effect in inking are not known.

   2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2023