Cephalopods
Mimic Octopus
Thaumoctopus mimicus · Cephalopod mollusk — family Octopodidae; described in 2005 after its late-1990s discovery on Indonesian muck
Plenty of octopuses match backgrounds; the mimic octopus impersonates other animals. First noticed on Sulawesi muck in the late 1990s, it forages exposed on bare silt in daylight, and its survival act is a repertoire: flattening into a gliding flounder, trailing banded arms like lionfish spines, or hiding all but two arms in a burrow and waving a convincing banded sea krait. Which impression appears seems to track which predator threatens. Longer lists get claimed — jellyfish, anemones, mantis shrimp — and deserve some skepticism; the core three are well documented. The animal itself is slight, brown-and-white banded, arms like linguine, probing worm holes across featureless slopes. Whole dives at black-sand sites are built around finding one. Stay off the silt, follow at arm's length, and let the show be voluntary.
どこで・いつ見られるか
「常駐（Resident）」とは、そのダイビングスポットでのほとんどのダイブで遭遇できることを意味します。「季節限定（Seasonal）」とは、記載された月に確実に見られることを意味します。それ以外の出会いはボーナスであり、計画の前提にはなりません。
| 目的地 | 信頼性 | 月 | メモ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bali & Nusa PenidaIndonesia | Occasional | 年間を通じて | |
| Lembeh StraitIndonesia | Occasional | 年間を通じて | |
| AnilaoPhilippines | Occasional | 年間を通じて | |
| Dumaguete, Dauin & Apo IslandPhilippines | Occasional | 年間を通じて | |
| Banda Sea & AmbonIndonesia | Occasional | 年間を通じて |
ベストな月、一目でわかる
理解を深める
ハビタット: Bare silt and black-sand flats near river mouths and muck bays, foraging around worm holes and burrows it can dive into.
分布域: Indo-Malayan region — Indonesia and the Philippines through to northern Australia and New Guinea.
生態・行動: Forages exposed in daylight on featureless bottom, switching between impersonations — a gliding flounder, trailing lionfish-like arms, or a banded sea krait waved from a burrow — apparently matched to the threat at hand.
食性: Small crustaceans and fishes probed out of burrows with linguine-thin arms.
サイズ: 目安は 0.4 m; 確認済みの最大記録 0.6 m (arm-span; the arms are strikingly slender).
出会ったときの正しいふるまい方
Follow at arm's length off the bottom, never dig, corral, or bait, and let every impersonation be the animal's own idea.
保全
Not reliably assessed; its narrow, developable coastal habitat and value to dive tourism argue for keeping muck bays healthy.
目撃情報で知られるダイブサイト
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