Devendra:

Where and at what depth did you photograph these Octopus?

Best

Syed

Sir I captured it before a month ago,  at one of my sampling site on night. It's approximately 1 km exposure there. 0.4 Low tide that night. 

Sometimes is difficult to identify octopus species using pics. An alternative way is comparing octopus front legs using species keys (e.g FAO identification catalog) or as a last-ditch alternative using histological analysis.

Good luck!

Dear Devendra,

I think FAO catalogue is nearly useless for identification of photos, but you can use it for approximate identification in accordance of main morphological and distributional features (at least you know where you caught it, and can study it morphological features).

I recommend you to look at Tree of Life web project (http://tolweb.org/Octopodiformes/19405)

If you want to preserve this octopus i recommed you to use 8-10% formaline. Also you could cut off a little piece of its tissue and store it in 90% alcohol (may be useful for DNA barcoding)

Best wishes,

Fedor

It is really difficult to identify octopus just from pics. Most of characters require closed examination of specimens, especially when exact identification bases on male characteristics.  If possible, I could help if you could mail me that specimen to the following address (not so far from India);

Jaruwat Nabhitabhata, Ph.D.

Cephalopod Research Unit

Excellence Centre for Biodiversity of Peninsular Thailand

Faculty of Science

Prince of Songkla University

Hatyai

Songkhla 90112

Thailand

e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Cheers,

Jaruwat

Excellent guide for preservation of Cephalopods by Roper & Sweeney (1983)

Check it with characteristics of Amphioctopus aegina (Gray, 1849)

Start your identification with FAO Cephalopod series of 3 books (2005-2013). Octopus are in Volume 3. Then proceed to the original descriptions. Other references for taxonomic process details are:

Guidelines for taxonomic descriptions of cephalopod species -Roper & Voss 1983

An Overview of Cephalopod Systematics Status, Problems and Recommendations -Roper 1983

Techniques for Fixation, Preservation, and Curation of Cephalopods -Roper & Sweeney 1983