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Journal of Experimental Biology 43,553-563 (1965)
Published by Company of Biologists 1965

Some Experiments on the Chemotactile Sense of Octopuses

M. J. WELLS ¹, N. H. FREEMAN , and M. ASHBURNER

¹ Zoology Department, Cambridge, and the Stazione Zoologica di Napoli

1. A method of training octopuses to make chemotactile discriminations is described.

2. The animals can readily be taught to distinguish between porous objects soaked in sea water and similar objects soaked in sea water with M/10 KCl added.

3. Using pairs of objects soaked in solutions with different amounts of KCl added, minimum distinguishable concentrations were determined over the range M/10M/100. Effective discrimination broke down when the ratio of the two test concentrations was of the order of 1.3. This approximates to the values found in chemical discrimination experiments with mammals and insects.

4. Attempts were made to determine the minimum detectable concentration of added KCl by progressive dilution of the M/10 KCl solution used in the initial training. Additions to sea water down to M/10⁵ were distinguished and there was some indication that octopuses can, in fact, detect added KCl at much smaller concentrations; the addition of M/10¹⁰ KCl produced a significant decline in the ability of animals under training to discriminate between M/10⁶ KCl and sea water.

5. Experiments on acid discrimination indicated that acids were distinguished on a basis of their pH, with acetic tasting noticeably more acid than HCl or H₂SO₄ at the same pH. Again, the result closely parallel those that have been obtained with mammals and insects.