overyourhead

Sex a stab in dark for confused octopus...
In Sydney sex is just a stab in the dark - for an aroused Australian blue-ringed octopus.

The Greater Blue-Ringed Octopus found in Australian waters cannot figure out the sex of its partner until a specially modified arm has checked out the target, according to the latest issue of Nature Australia magazine.

Copulation involves inserting the arm equipped with a spermatophore, or a sperm packet, into the other octopus' body.

Males were equally likely to copulate with other males as females, wrote researchers Mary Cheng and Roy Caldwell from the University of California, Berkeley, in the first detailed study of the sexual behavior of the sea creature.

Most male-to-male copulations ended rapidly in amicable separation, while in male-female copulations the male was less enthusiastic about departing and would take more than an hour and a half, to ensure fertilization, the scientists said.
[Thanks to Bryn the link to the article]