Autotomy
Videos
Autotomy is the behaviour whereby an animal sheds or discards an appendage, usually as a self-preservation mechanism to elude a predator's grasp or to distract the predator and thereby allow escape. S
A white-headed dwarf gecko with tail lost due to autotomy
A lizard tail shed by autotomy
The conspicuous change in the tail pattern of this marbled gecko indicates regeneration after autotomy.
A fish scale gecko showing both autotomized scales and tail
Hectocotylus
Videos
A hectocotylus is one of the arms of male cephalopods that is specialized to store and transfer spermatophores to the female. Structurally, hectocotyli are muscular hydrostats. Depending on the specie
Autotomy
…chemical toxin after being stung. Autotomy occurs in some species of octopus for survival and for reproduction: the specialized reproductive arm (the hectocotylus) detaches from the male during mating and remains within the female's mantle cavity. Species of (land) slugs in the genus Prophysaon can self-amputate…
Georges Cuvier's original illustration of an octopus hectocotylus. Mistaking it for its own separate organism, he named it Hectocotyle octopodis.
Squid
Octopod
Abraliopsis morisi hectocotylus English