Octopus (Octopus vulgaris)

A cephalopod mollusc found in rocky places along the coastal zone of this island. It is caught by chance on a line or in a fish trap (covo), and in summer it is gathered by hand by boys who dive for the purpose, taking care to ‘turn its hood inside out’ so as not to be troubled by the animal’s tentacles. The hood is the sac containing the respiratory siphon, so that once it has been turned inside out the octopus is rendered completely helpless. Like all coastal species, the octopus has fallen victim to the use of dynamite and potassium chlorate bombs, and it is therefore much less common today than in the past.

According to information given to us by Mr Adolfo César de Noronha, in November 1861 the French dispatch vessel L’Alecton found, between Madeira and Tenerife, a gigantic octopus 5 to 6 metres long, not counting its eight enormous arms, which proved to belong to the genus Architeutis. Among the rarest cephalopod species found in Madeira is also Argonauta argo, whose delicate shell, elegantly shaped like a volute, is used by the female to shelter her eggs. She lays them in this kind of floating cradle and settles on top as if to brood them, until the moment of hatching.