Hehe...just got back here, my internet's been all wonky...
Colin...what a fascinating idea! Could it be that they actually have to manually bring back out their deposited spermatophores? Although...Tintenfisch did mention they pretty much stab wherever they can, so maybe some spots would be too hard to get to?
As for my guesses...
...well, they're still just technically GUESSES! That was just a really good clue from Tintenfisch and I found a helpful drawing.
Still, I think the crossroads we stand at now is whether this is the Archi's own tentacles or another individual's. If they're it's own, we'd prolly know because it would be missing them? Which then further leads us to why? Senesence? Starvation? Colin's really wild and cool fertilization idea? If it's another's, the questions would become did it just eat the tentacles or the whole squid, and under what circumstances--was it a hostile territorial encounter, was it the popular "suicidal sex" theory, or was it naked predation? I'm really not sure WHICH of these I like best! Suicidal sex does have a certain allure, though...wasn't it mentioned somewhere here that specimens of adult male Archis are really scarce? If most washed-up or caught specimens are adults at or post reproduction, then I guess they would be scarce if they're being eaten!
And, finally, one last idea comes to mind. Since no one's ever SEEN an Archi eat, just how might that work? Could it be that it's kind of like trying to eat a sandwich with heavy velcro mittens on? That it's unable to eat it's prey without accidentally munching a decent bit on it's own tentacles, and that they just regenerate really fast? Or that perhaps the occasional sucker or sucker ring gets popped out of the club by struggling prey, and thus ingested? Given that the Kiwi contingent assures us these are pretty sensational finds, this idea sounds a bit less sensational and so maybe isn't it. Just thought I'd throw it out there...
rusty