 Historically, members of this genus were placed within the genus "Octopus", but recognized as forming a distinct group and referred to as the "Octopus aegina" species complex.The genus was originally described by Fischer in 1882.He assigned to it the already described species, "Octopus membranaceus" (Quoy and Gaimard, 1832), as the type species (not to be confused with "Enteroctopus membranaceus" (Rochebrune and Mabille, 1889), the original types species of the genus "Enteroctopus").