Actually, locals and fishermen have long been familiar with the species -but they kept mistaking it for a juvenile form of the common long-arm octopus ('Octopus'minor), whose trade is widespread throughout the country.

Only when a team of scientists from the Ocean University of China collected a batch of specimens misidentified by locals from Dongshan Seafood Market Pier as'O'. minorto study them, did it become apparent that this was in fact a separate, new species. That's how it got its own name,Callistoctopus xiaohongxu,and a scientific description published in the open-access journalZooKeys.

The scientific namexiaohongxuis a phonetic translation of the local Chinese name of this species in Zhangzhou, where it was collected. It is a reference to its smooth skin and reddish-brown colour, which are among its most distinctive features. At less than 40 g in its adult stage,C. xiaohongxuis considered a small to moderate-sized octopus.

The researchers also note that this is the first new species of the genusCallistoctopusto be found in the China Seas.

More than 130 different cephalopod species are recorded in Chinese waters. The southeast waters of China, due to the influence of strong warm currents, provide ideal environmental conditions to generate abundant marine biodiversity, and the finding ofC. xiaohongxufurther confirms the high diversity of species in the southeast China sea, the researchers said.