First record of spawning and embryonic development in Octopus macropus (Mollusca : Cephalopoda)

A female Octopus macropus, the first ever observed spawning, attached eggs (4.0 x 1.2 mm, with a chorion stalk 4 mm in length) individually or in clus ters to a hard substrate, and brooded them till hatching. Hatchlings measur ed 4.0 mm in dorsal mantle length, 5.5 mm in total length and were plankton ic; their short arms had seven suckers each, the outer demi-branch of each gill had ten lamellae. The chromatophore pattern confirmed an earlier ident ification of young individuals from the plankton (Naef, 1923).