''Bathypolypus valdiviae'', common name the boxer octopus or Valdivia bathyal octopus, is a species of

octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

in the family

Bathypolypodidae ''Bathypolypus'' is a genus of octopuses in the monotypic family Bathypolypodidae. Species Species in the genus ''Bathypolypus'' include: * '' Bathypolypus arcticus'' ( Prosch, 1847) ** '' Bathypolypus arcticus arcticus'' – spoonarm octopu ...

. It is endemic to the south Atlantic off southern Africa below a depth of where it was one of the most commonly sampled cephalopods, taken mainly from the sea bed. The specific name commemorates the

SS Valdivia SS ''Valdivia'' was a passenger ship that was built in England and launched in 1886 as ''Tijuca''. She was renamed ''Valdivia'' in 1896, ''Tom G. Corpi'' in 1908 and ''Flandre'' in 1909. She had a succession of German owners until 1909, when she ...

the steamship used on the

Valdivia Expedition The ''Valdivia'' Expedition, or ''Deutsche Tiefsee-Expedition'' (German Deep Sea Expedition), was a scientific expedition organised and funded by the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II and was named after the ship which was bought and outfit ...

of 1898-1899 and which was led by

Carl Chun Carl Chun or Karl Friedrich Gustav Chun (1 October 1852 – 11 April 1914) was a German marine biologist who worked as a professor at the Universities of Königsberg (1883), Breslau (1891) and Leipzig (1898). He was a pioneer of German oceanogr ...

In a recent 2021 study, geographic distribution of the species has expanded to waters off Guinea–Bissau.

References

Luna A, Rocha F, PeralesRaya C (2021). A review of cephalopods (Phylum: Mollusca) of the Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem (Central-East Atlantic, African coast). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 101, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315420001356 Luna A, Rocha F, PeralesRaya C (2021). A review of cephalopods (Phylum: Mollusca) of the Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem (Central-East Atlantic, African coast). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 101, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315420001356 Octopodidae Cephalopods described in 1915 {{Octopus-stub