The Blanket Octopus has a blanket like sheets of flesh in between their arms/tentacles. It is used for protection.
Males grow up to 1.5 inches and females can grow up to 6 feet! Marine scientists and biologists believe that the male blanket octopuses spend the majority of their energy on finding a potential female to mate and not on growing.
So exactly do they mate with such a size difference? The male Blanket Octopus has a large arm called the hectocotylus. During the mating process, the male’s hectocotylus detaches from its body and the female keeps it in her mantle cavity until her eggs are all fertilized. Soon after a successful mate, the males are found to die as if their sole purpose of survival was to have a successful mate. The female can carry more than 100,000 eggs at the base of her dorsal arms. She will carry her eggs until they hatch.
More on their “blankets” and how they use them as a defense mechanism in the video below.