Male blue-lined octopuses inject a powerful neurotoxin into the hearts of females before mating to avoid being eaten, ...

And in the case of the male blue-lined octopus, his neurotoxin supply serves as a defensive mechanism against his mate. Sexual cannibalism is documented across a wide range of species ...

It’s an octopus-eat-octopus world. Scientists have discovered that when mating, male blue-lined octopuses will inject a powerful, incapacitating neurotoxin into the hearts of female octopuses ...

Some male octopuses tend to get eaten by their sexual partners, but male blue-lined octopuses avoid this fate with help from ...

Scientists have found that male blue-lined octopuses inject venom and paralyse females during sex to avoid being killed and cannibalised by their much larger partners. At such a critical moment in US ...

"Mating ended when the females regained control of their arms and pushed the males off," the researchers noted.

Like praying mantises and widow spiders, a female blue-lined octopus will often kill and eat the male after mating. It's just a circle of life for these creatures. The smaller males provide ...

When the octopus is scared or hungry ... meaning they still may be able to overpower and attack males attempting to mate. Researchers noticed that male blue-lined octopuses have larger posterior ...

But while other octopus species have evolved longer mating arms that allow them to maintain a safe distance during copulation and avoid this fate, blue-lined octopuses have a comparatively short ...

A male blue-lined octopus often becomes their partner's meal after mating but the University of Queensland's Fabio Cortesi tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe some males have found a way to survive.