blue-ringed octopus
nounEtymology From blue + ringed + octopus. From being an octopus with very prominent bright blue rings all over its body.
1
Any octopus of the genus Hapalochlaena, with distinctive blue rings, that carry the highly poisonous venom tetrodotoxin (TTX).
- 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: