The thing about those octopus holes that intrigues me, above and beyond their
tiny size, is their location on the shell, up on the spire away from the
aperture. You would think it would be easier to go in through the aperture on
most species of snail. Wouldn't it be easier to drill through a horny
operculum on a conch or tulip, than through the wall of the shell itself?
Heck, with lots of species, there is plenty of flesh not covered by
operculum.

But then I ordered a book on octopi that I saw advertised in Ocean Realm
magazine. Do you all know this rag? It is fabulous. But I digress. So I read
that all octopus have venom. Though not all species pack the wallop of, say,
one of the Blue-Ringed octopus species.

That being the case, I figure that the hole is positioned to access the
victim's liver to make the most of that venom. Octopus are, no doubt, as
impatient as anyone else come suppertime. But I can't tell you for sure,
because I packed away the book with the rest of the bulk of my library and as
of yesterday, it's in storage.