 In her study of "Abdopus aculeatus", Huffard (2006) hypothesized that an octopus benefited from its mimicry of a fish by the fact that potential predators did not attack what they thought was a bony flatfish that was too large for their gape whereas a soft-bodied octopus would be more likely to be attacked.In the Pacific Ocean there are two species of octopus, "Thaumoctopus mimicus" and an unnamed species, which are known to mimic flounders when swimming, but "Macrotritopus defilippi" is the first such species known from the Atlantic Ocean.At one time, unidentified "Macrotritopus" larvae characterized by having long third arms were known from the Caribbean Sea but the adult form was unknown.