Stylet increment analysis has been successfully applied to a range of octopus, including both holobenthic and merobenthic species (Table 1).
Species Validated Study Holobenthic Octopus pallidus Yes Doubleday et al.
Either the ancestor was holopelagic (and therefore planktotrophic) and a new sexually mature benthic stage was added to the life cycle with the pelagic, planktotrophic stage retained as a larva (the "terminal addition" theory), or new larval stages became "intercalated" into the ancestral
holobenthic life cycle in several lineages.
2008b), which is a
holobenthic species, in which it is relatively straightforward to obtain known-age individuals because there is no pelagic stage.
The second proposal for the origin of the pelago-benthic life cycle, the intercalation hypothesis, reconstructs the first bilaterians as
holobenthic organisms.
Assessing the stock status of
holobenthic octopus fisheries: is catch per unit effort sufficient?
The basic patterns in reproductive strategies of marine benthic invertebrates include
holobenthic cycles, with (a) direct larval development and no pelagic larval phase; (b) completely pelagic cycles and (c) pelagic-benthic cycles where larval development is mixed.