Eledone

Eledone is a genus of octopuses forming the only genus in the family Eledonidae.^[2] It is mainly distributed in the northern and southern Atlantic Ocean, with one species, E. palari, described from the southwestern Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean in waters around Indonesia and Australia and another, E. microsicya, from the western Indian Ocean. One species, E. thysanophora, is now regarded as a synonym of the brush-tipped octopus (Eledone schultzei).^[3]

Eledone
Eledone cirrhosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Order:	Octopoda
Family:	Eledonidae Leach, 1817
Genus:	Eledone (Leach, 1817)[1]
Type species
Octopus cirrhosus Lamarck, 1789[1]
Species
See text.
Synonyms
Aphrodoctopus Roper & Mangold, 1991 Eledona Risso, 1854 Hoylea Rochebrune, 1885 Ozoena Rafinesque, 1814

Species

The following species are currently classified as being in the genus Eledone:^[1][4]

• Eledone caparti Adam, 1950
• Eledone cirrhosa (Lamarck, 1798) – curled octopus
• Eledone gaucha Haimovici, 1988
• Eledone massyae Voss, 1964 – combed octopus
• Eledone microsicya * (Rochebrune, 1884)
• Eledone moschata (Lamarck, 1798) – musky octopus
• Eledone nigra (Hoyle, 1910)
• Eledone palari Lu and Stranks, 1992 – spongetip octopus
• Eledone schultzei Hoyle, 1910 -- brush-tipped octopus

The species listed above with an asterisk (*) are questionable and need further study to determine if they are valid species or synonyms.