Flamboyant cuttlefish behavior: Camouflage tactics and complex colorful reproductive behavior assessed during field studies at Lembeh Strait, Indonesia

Highlights

• The colorful Flamboyant Display is among the most elaborate of cephalopods.

• The Display is seen only during courtship and mate guarding or very briefly as a startle response to predators.

• Mating is brief (3 s) and females are very choosy.

• This cuttlefish has superb camouflage and remains this way the vast majority of time.

Abstract

The flamboyant cuttlefish Metasepia pfefferi is renowned for its bold and colorful body patterns, yet the functions of these displays and other behaviors remain largely unknown. We conducted two field studies in Indonesia using SCUBA and video to record its behavior under natural conditions. Camouflage via background matching and masquerade is the common primary defense against predators, and is also used offensively to approach prey closely. This species rarely uses its “flamboyant” bright conspicuous displays in nature; they were observed only during courtship or as secondary defense when a large fish closely approaches it. Males are only 10–60% the size of females and they court her with a vivid and dynamic Flamboyant Display, which appears to be one of the most elaborate among cephalopods. Conversely, females remain camouflaged and show no conspicuous courtship behaviors. When two males courted or mate-guarded a single female, unilateral signaling of aggression was observed. Twenty matings were recorded among 5 pairs of cuttlefish; they were in the “head-to-head” position and lasted only 3 s. Females were choosy; they required males to court for long periods and rejected 50% of males that attempted to mate with them. Females lay ca. 25 eggs per batch, roughly 6–7 min apart, usually during morning hours and with no male present. They often deposit eggs in coconut shells that occupy this open sandy habitat. This small species is cryptic and spends the vast majority of each day in a variety of highly camouflaged body patterns.

Introduction

The flamboyant cuttlefish is well known to the public because of its “Flamboyant Display,” which is a dynamic body pattern featuring bright yellow, red, white and brown colors accompanied by waves of patterns as well as distinctive arm postures and dynamic skin bumps called papillae (Fig. 1). This exotic body patterning has been popularized by photographers, natural history documentaries and public aquaria yet, curiously, the behavioral functions of this and other body patterns and behaviors remain largely unknown. There are only two scientific journal papers with information on aspects of its biology: a brief lab/field study by Roper and Hochberg at Lizard Island, Australia (Roper and Hochberg, 1988) and a lab study of 5th generation lab-reared flamboyant cuttlefish in a public aquarium (Thomas and MacDonald, 2016). A fundamental question from the viewpoint of behavioral ecology is: how does a small, soft-bodied, solitary animal living in a wide-open sand or mud plain survive predation, find food and find mates? Here we report two intensive field studies of natural behavior of flamboyant cuttlefish to provide a basis for determining its behavioral ecology in natural settings.