Thaumeledone is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of octopus

Octopus

The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...

es in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Octopodidae

Octopodidae

Octopodidae is the family containing the majority of known octopus species.-Subfamilies and species:*Basal genus Vulcanoctopus*Genus incertae sedis Histoctopus*Subfamily Bathypolypodinae**Genus Bathypolypus**Genus Benthoctopus...

 found in deep waters in the Southern Hemisphere.

Characteristics

Members of this genus are found in deep waters in the Southern Hemisphere. They are are small, squat bodied
benthic octopuses with arms united by a web. There are a single row of suckers on the arms. Most species have a deep purple pigmentation on the oral surface of the web. One arm in the male is modified into a hectocotylus

Hectocotylus

A hectocotylus is one of the arms of the male of most kinds of cephalopods that is modified in various ways to effect the fertilization of the female's eggs. It is a specialized, extended muscular hydrostat used to store spermatophores, the male gametophore...

. This has a large calamus at the end giving it a club-like appearance.

Species

The following species are accepted by the World Register of Marine Species:

• Thaumeledone brevis (Hoyle, 1885) - South west Atlantic Ocean.
• Thaumeledone gunteri
  Thaumeledone gunteri
  Thaumeledone gunteri is a species of small, benthic, deep-sea octopus found in the bathyal zone in the Southern Ocean near South Georgia.-Description:...
  
  Robson, 1930 - Southern Ocean around South Georgia.
• Thaumeledone marshalli O'Shea, 1999 - New Zealand and the south west Pacific Ocean.
• Thaumeledone peninsulae Allcock, Collins, Piatkowski & Vecchione, 2004 - Southern Ocean, Antarctic Peninsula.
• Thaumeledone rotunda (Hoyle, 1885) - Southern Ocean and circumpolar. (This name is considered invalid by the World Register of Marine Species, which prefers Bentheledone rotunda.)
• Thaumeledone zeiss O'Shea, 1999 - New Zealand and the south west Pacific Ocean.