Male blue-lined octopuses inject a powerful neurotoxin into the hearts of females before mating to avoid being eaten, according to a new study.

While unfortunate for the males, becoming a post-sex meal offers the females vital nutrients needed to sustain themselves and their soon-to-be hundreds of gestating offspring. This practice is especially common in animals exhibiting female sexual dimorphism,

Some male octopuses tend to get eaten by their sexual partners, but male blue-lined octopuses avoid this fate with help from one of nature’s most potent venoms

A team of neurologists, environmentalists and bioengineers at the University of Queensland, in Australia, has found that male blue-lined octopuses paralyze females prior to mating to avoid being eaten.