The waters of the South and East China seas are kept warm year round by the Kuroshio, South China Sea, and Taiwan currents, which constantly bring in water from close to the equator, keeping the water off much of the Chinese coast in the 14-16° range even in the coldest months of winter. This is favourable for many marine organisms, creating a biodiversity hotspot in the region.
In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 12 September 2022, Xiaodong Zheng, Chenxi Xu, and Jiahua Li, of the Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity and the KeyLaboratory of Mariculture at the Ocean University of China, describe a new species of Octopus from the coast of Fujian Province, China.
The new species is assigned to the genus Callistoctopus, which was separated from the genus Octopus in 1993 to accommodate a group of four species, two of which are known from Chinese coastal waters, and given the specific name xiaohongxu, the name under which it was being traded at Dongshan Seafood Market Pier, where it came to the attention of of the scientists, and which implies that it is small and red.
Callistoctopus xiaohongxu is a small Octopus, reaching a mantle length of 42.7-83.3 mm, with arms 154.9-336.3 mm long. Each arm has two lines of dark pigment cells on its lateral margin, and two rows of small suckers.
