Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

F.
G. Hochberg, Ph.D.

Research links

• Invertebrate Zoology Home

F. G. (Eric) Hochberg, Ph. D.
Curator of Invertebrate Zoology

Mailing address:
Department of Invertebrate Zoology
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
2559 Puesta del Sol Rd.
Santa Barbara, CA 93105 USA
Phone: 805-682-4711 x145
FAX: 805-563-0574
email: fghochberg(AT)sbnature2.org

Dr. F.G. (Eric) Hochberg received his PhD in Zoology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1971. Following a 9-month stint sailing across the Pacific he returned to teaching positions at the University of Washington, Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island and the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada. He joined the Museum staff as a Curator in 1973.

Eric is one of the world's leading experts on several unusual small groups of parasites that live exclusively in the kidneys or on the gills of cephalopod mollusks (octopuses, cuttlefishes & squids). In addition, he works on the taxonomy, distribution, biology, and behavior of octopuses and squids. Over the years he has studied and published papers on a diversity of marine and terrestrial invertebrate groups including: parasites of marine animals (protozoans, dicyemids, orthonectids & flatworms); cnidarians (hydroids, octocorals & corals); annelids (earthworms); mollusks (land snails & slugs); crustaceans (terrestrial isopods); and brachiopods (lamp shells).

Much of his early work was conducted aboard oceanographic cruises or through SCUBA diving. In 1971 he was an aquanaut-scientist in the Tektite II program and lived underwater for 3 weeks in the Virgin Islands where he conducted research.

He is a charter member and co-founder of three societies: Western Society of Malacologists (WSM; 1968); Nature Printing Society (NPS; 1976); and the Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC; 1981).

Selected publications:

Hochberg, F.G. 1990. Diseases of Mollusca: Cephalopoda. Diseases caused by protistans and metazoans. Pp. 47-227. In: O. Kinne (Editor). Diseases of Marine Animals. Vol. III. Biologische Anstalt Helgoland: Hamburg, GERMANY. 696 pp.

Hochberg, F.G. & M. Nixon. 1992. Order Vampyromorpha Pickford, 1939 and Order Octopoda Leach, 1818. Pp. 211-280. In: M.J. Sweeney, C.F.E. Roper, K.M. Mangold, M.R. Clarke & S.v. Boletzky (Editors). "Larval" and Juvenile Cephalopods: A Manual for their Identification. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, No. 513. 282 pp.

Norman, M.D. & F.G. Hochberg. 2005. The current state of octopus taxonomy. Pp. 127-154. In: C. Chotiyaputta, E.M.C. Hatfield & C.-C. Lu (Editors). Cephalopod Biology, Recruitment and Culture: International Cephalopod Symposium and Workshops, February 2003. Phuket Marine Biological Center Research Bulletin, No. 66. 365 pp.

Packard, A. & F.G. Hochberg. 1977. Skin patterning in Octopus and other genera. Pp. 191-231. In: M. Nixon & J.B. Messenger (Editors). The Biology of Cephalopods. Symposium of the Zoological Society, London, No. 138. 615 pp.

Seibel, B.A., F.G. Hochberg & D.B. Carlini. 2000. Life history of Gonatus onyx (Cephalopod: Teuthoidea): deep-sea spawning and post-spawning egg care. Marine Biology 137(3): 519-526.