The Octocorallia are a highly diverse group, rich in secondary compounds which serve several ecological functions, including predator defense, interspecific competition for space, antifouling, and reproduction. The Alcyonacea are characterized by high frequencies of ichthyotoxicity and feeding deterrence which are not generally correlated with each other. This may be due to the multiple functions these compounds perform, m a s l n g correlations which would otherwise be apparent. Correlations between ichthyotoxicity and physical defense exist, but only at higher levels of taxonomic resolution. One resultant selective advantage of varlance in ichthyotoxlcity and feeding deterrence may be Diffuse Batesian Mimicry, whereby the toxic or feeding-deterrent characteristics of a majority of species help to protect a taxon with a small number of general morphological types and small variance in coloration from generalist predators. Surface-brooded planulae of Indo-Pacific coral species, similar in appearance but not possessing toxic or feeding deterrent attributes, may be similarly protected. The chemical characters of octocorals may serve the same functions which morphological characters in scleractinian corals serve, particularly in predator defense and competition for space. Most octocorals lack a rigid skeleton possessed by scleractinians, which can protect polyps from predation. Octocorals also lack toxic stinging nenlatocysts common to scleractinians, but possess allelopathic capabilities. In some octocorals, 'non-toxic' nematocysts on sweeper tentacles may still be effective in competition for space; in others, aggressive interactions can be avoided through re-orientation or movement, resulting in directed growth. Octocoral orders are distributed inequitably between the tropical Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. The Gorgonacea dominate the former; the Alcyonacea. the latter. Octocoral species diversity is higher in the western Indo-Pacific, as is the abundance and diversity of secondary rnetabolites and their functions. This may be a result of differential levels of extinction between the 2 regions dunng the early Miocene and the late Pliocene/early Pleistocene, with high extinction rates having been experienced in the Caribbean. These extinctions may also have affected radiation in the secondary metabolites produced by those species and the functions which those rnetabolites serve. Secondary metabolites appear to have contributed to the evolutionary success of the Indo-Pacific Alcyonacea. In accordance with the Time-Stability hypothesis, we believe that this high abundance and diversity evolved in the Indo-Pacific under conditions of reduced climatic change and lower extinction levels, when compared to the Caribbean.