Octopus arms typically have ca. 200 suckers each, and these suckers are the primary organs that interact with the environment for touch and taste perception as well as mechanical adhesion and manipulation. Each sucker is a complex, self-contained muscular hydrostat, yet little is known about the mechanical capabilities of individual suckers.
Diverse sucker functions appear to be achieved with only two basic gross morphological actions of the sucker alone: first, attachment and detachment by suction (manipulation of pressure differentials), described by Mather (1998) as acquire, relinquish, and hold; and second, by pinching an object of small diameter between opposite sides of the sucker disk face folded along an axis parallel to the long axis of the object to be pinched ( Packard 1988, Kier and Smith 1990 cited therein).
This study explores whether differences in the suction action of individual suckers contribute to higher-level coordination, and the extent to which individual suckers are specialized or undifferentiated actors in the organizational hierarchy of octopus behavioral control.
Results of this study were presented in
LoBaugh, D.A. 2008. Proportional change in sucker disk area during an attachment sequence of an Octopus bimaculoides. M.Sc. Thesis in Environmental Science, Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage AK.
and are being prepared for submission for publication to the American Malacological Bulletin.
