Morphological and histological description of the reproductive system of Octopus hubbsorum (Mollusca: Cephalopoda)

Octopus hubbsorum is a commercially important species from the Mexican Pacific, but aspects of its reproductive biology have been scarcely studied. Several studies have investigated the macroscopic and histological features of the reproductive system of octopods, focusing primarily on the ovary and its maturation process, but histological descriptions of the entire reproductive system in both sexes are not available. In this study, we provide detailed morphological and histological descriptions of male and female reproductive systems of O. hubbsorum locating and characterizing each of their constituent parts. Morphological features that are different among species are highlighted, as the location of the common oviduct has not been previously reported for this species, nor the differences in the epithelium of the male reproductive system.