Dagon in Drag: How Giant Cuttlefish Spit Game (sometimes)
The giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) can shift dramatically in shape and color, playing off a grand cephalopod tradition that includes the internet celebrity taxa “mimic octopus”1 and, of course, Dread C-Money, the Dreaming Dead himself, Cthulhu. The Giant Cuttlefish males and females typically look quite distinct – but all is not as it seems. Mated cuttlefish pairs maintain their monogamy mostly by the constant vigilance of the male half. As they swim around the Australian seas in marital cuttly-bliss, he uses his extremely sharp cephalopod vision to keep a lookout for any potential rivals. Other big, flashy, male shaped cuttlefish.
But the “97 lb weaklings”2 of the cuttlefish world have adopted a different tactic. Unable to fight the big guy man to man, they follow closely behind, having taken on not just the color, but the distinctive body shape, of females.
Essentially, metrosexual molluscs.
When the mated male is engaged in fighting another big rival, these sneak-spawners will dart in, and suddenly return to their true male shape, flashing mating colors in front of the female. Turns out, this works a decent amount of the time3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8oQBYw6xxc “The Indonesian Mimic Octopus” Uploaded by marcelnad
Charles Atlas, “The Insult” Advertisement series, circa 1940, “Classic Ads” CharlesAtlas.com
Norman MD, Finn J, Tregenza T (1999) Female impersonation as an alternative reproductive strategy in the giant cuttlefish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 266:1347-1349
