Admit it, once you were informed about the huge discrepancy in size between the male and the female blanket octopus one of the first thoughts that entered your mind was, how do they mate?

Even if you are familiar with some of the more common mating and reproductive processes of other species of octopus, when you hear how blankets octopuses do it, you will be impressed.

The male blanket octopus, like all male octopuses, has one of its eight arms as a dedicated sperm delivery appendage. This arm is formally called the hectocotylus. Informally, it is often referred to as the “sex arm.”

When a male octopus comes across a female, he will get as close as possible to her mantle and insert his hectocotylus (sex arm).

Okay, so far, so good. That’s very similar to other octopuses. But, hold on — this is where things begin to get freaky. When the male blanket octopus inserts his sex arm into the mantle of the female, it snaps off. Yes, the sex arm snaps off and begins to crawl by itself deeper into the mantle of the females carrying its little sperm packet.

The now seven armed male blanket octopus swims away and dies very shortly thereafter.

Hectocotylus autotomy, however strange it might seem, has also been observed in other pelagic octopus species such as the Argonaut Octopus.

We realize that it may take a few minutes for that image to properly sink in, but there is more.

The female carries the severed sex arm of the male in her mantle until she decides to lay her eggs. When that happens, she sprays them with the male’s severed sex arm in order to fertilize them. Female blanket octopuses will produce between 80,000 to 100,000 eggs.

If you need a moment to recover from all of this information, we understand.