Day octopus

Photo: jfisk · CC BY-NC

The day octopus is Hawaii's most commonly encountered cephalopod, hunting actively during daylight hours and retreating to crevices in the lava tube walls at night. It is a master of rapid colour and texture change, using chromatophores to match the encrusting coralline algae and basalt of the cave walls almost instantaneously. Females brood eggs inside cavern crevices, guarding clutches for weeks without feeding — a behaviour that makes lava tube systems disproportionately important as octopus nursery habitat.