Octopus Suckers Identification Code (OSIC)

In the literature, a reference terminology for labelling octopus arms exists, but a convention for the labelling of octopus suckers is so far lacking. The precise identification and subsequent ability to address a specific sucker is impossible without some type of convention. In this work, we propose an Octopus Sucker Identification Code, with three/five characters, depending on whether the octopus species has one or two rows of suckers. Specifically, two characters identify the arm to which the sucker belongs, one integer identifies the sucker position along the arm and two subscript characters (present in cases of octopus species with two rows of suckers) identify the adjacent arm towards which the sucker is faced. The proposed code allows the unequivocal identification of the suckers of any octopus arm of any octopus species. © 2013 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis.