Argonauta argo
species of mollusc
Argonauta argo, also known as the greater argonaut, is a species of pelagic octopus belonging to the genus Argonauta. In some parts of Guangdong, China, this species is locally known as “白海马巢” While the name literally translates as "white sea-horse's nest", the term "sea-horse" in regional Sinitic languages actually refers to sand crabs (such as ghost crabs) rather than the animal commonly known as a seahorse, and bears no relation to horses. In Taizhou, local elderly speakers refer to its shell as "sea-horse shell", while the soft body is called "octopus".
A. argo was the first argonaut species to be described and is consequently the type species of the genus. The type specimen of A. argo was collected in the Mediterranean Sea and is deposited at the Linnean Society of London.
Description
A. argo is the largest species in the genus and also produces the largest eggcase. Live animals have a characteristic blue sheen on the first arm pair and around the eyes. The eggcase is characterised by two rows of small, sharp tubercles running along a narrow keel, smooth ribs across the walls of the shell, and a thickening along the shell aperture, which forms distinct protrusions or 'horns' on either side. Argonauta cygnus Monterosato, 1889 was described based on a shell which lacked these protrusions, although it is now considered a junior synonym of A. argo. The greatest recorded size of an A. argo eggcase is 300 mm.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q39514. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1889.
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This entry incorporates text from “Argonauta argo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.