PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 106(4), 1993, pp. 645-660 OCTOPUS ORNA TUS GOULD, 1852 (CEPHALOPODA: OCTOPODIDAE) IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS: MORPHOLOGY, DISTRIBUTION, AND LIFE HISTORY Mark D. Norman Abstract.— T\iQ morphology, distribution, and life history of the "white-striped octopus," Octopus ornatus Gould, 1852, from Australian waters are reported. Information gathered on habitat preferences, activity patterns, foraging behav-ior and diet also are presented. Australian representatives of this species are described and compared with the neotype from Hawaiian waters. Prior reports of O. ornatus from Australia refer to a related species. Octopus aspilosomatis Norman, 1993a. Distributional records from Asia, the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean are presented. The known distribution of O. ornatus ex-tends from Easter Island and the Hawaiian islands, west to eastern Africa. Delineation of O. ornatus from related taxa is discussed. The "white-striped octopus," Octopus or-natus Gould, 1852, is a large, noctumally-active octopus found primarily in associa-tion with coral reefs throughout the tropical Indian and West Pacific Oceans. This spe-cies originally was described by Gould (1852) on the basis of specimens from the Hawaiian Islands collected on the Wilkes U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. Original type material has never been traced and is presumed lost (Voss 1981). Voss (1981) redescribed the species and desig-nated a neotype from Oahu Island, Hawaii (93.7 mm ML male, USNM 730020). Voss also described additional specimens from Hawaii, the Marshall Islands and Kenya, and synonymized Callistoctopus arakawai Taki, 1964 from southern Japanese waters. Octopus ornatus was reported from Liz-ard Island at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia by Roper & Hoch-berg (1987, 1988). Specimens and photo-graphs of the taxon referred to in these works have been re-examined and proved to be-long to a distinct species. Octopus aspilo-somatis Norrmin, 1993a. This paper presents the first record of the true O. ornatus from Australian waters. A detailed description of the Australian spec-imens and a comparison with the neotype are provided. Additional counts and indices from the neotype are provided beyond those included in Voss's (1981) treatment. This species is reported for the first time from a number of new localities in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Observations of live O. or-natus from Australia provide some infor-mation on habitat preferences, foraging be-havior, diet and activity patterns. Methods Nine live O. ornatus were encountered in the field in two visits to One Tree Island, Capricorn Bunker Group, southern Great Barrier Reef in October 1989 and Septem-ber 1 990. Individual animals were observed and photographed in situ. Seven animals were collected and returned to aquaria where they were observed, described and photo-graphed. The seven specimens were killed in fresh water, fixed in 10% formalin for a
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