Do cephalopods have sex based behaviors?

[juicy_squid]

Greetings oh great all knowing scholars of Teuthology,

I come before you humbly today to ask thee of a question.
Do cephalopods have behaviors and or personalities that are specific to their sex ? For example, more aggressive, curious, shy, assertive, intimate, passive.

Are they specific to certain specimen?

I not sure this is the correct place for this post, and if so please forgive me.


Thank you

 

[monty]

cuttlefish certainly do. I think Mather classified personalities of octopuses, but I don't know if she found a sex bias.

 

[Jean]

Anecdotally we find our male octopus to be more day active and more of a show off than the females. The females seem to be much more strongly nocturnal. We've never really assessed this thoroughly though, this is just from many years of keeping them in the aquarium (and it could be an aquarium mediated behaviour pattern too!)

 

[juicy_squid]

I think Mather classified personalities of octopuses.

Whats "mather" mean?

Are you talking about Jennifer Mather, a Canadian biologist?

 

[monty]

Whats "mather" mean?

Are you talking about Jennifer Mather, a Canadian biologist?

Yup. Sorry, I was in a bit of a rush, couldn't remember her first name, and didn't have time to look for a reference. http://animals.howstuffworks.com/marine-life/octopus6.htm is a summary, you can probably find the original paper with google.

 

[DWhatley]

For clarification, your title is specific about behavior and gender where your post only mentions behavior. Are you asking specifically about gender based personality? The answers would be quite different.

 

[juicy_squid]

Sorry about that I forgot to add the "sex based" part to the question. Please read the question again sorry.

Please forgive me

 

[ckeiser]

The Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea) has some amazing differences between the body patterns expressed by males and females during courtship.

One of the most interesting features is the agonistic Silver Display expressed by mate-paired males towards other nearby males. However, showing the Silver Display to a female will result in no copulation. So the males can actually split their body pattern so that they appear Silver (i.e. saying "This is my female, back off!) towards males on one side, and look calm towards their female. Amazing!

For some footage of this male behaviour (and other great ceph body patterning), check out this video:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_gallo_shows_underwater_astonishments.html

Great enquiry, JS.
Cheers.

 

[Shanks]

The Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea) has some amazing differences between the body patterns expressed by males and females during courtship.

One of the most interesting features is the agonistic Silver Display expressed by mate-paired males towards other nearby males. However, showing the Silver Display to a female will result in no copulation. So the males can actually split their body pattern so that they appear Silver (i.e. saying "This is my female, back off!) towards males on one side, and look calm towards their female. Amazing!

For some footage of this male behaviour (and other great ceph body patterning), check out this video:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_gallo_shows_underwater_astonishments.html

Great enquiry, JS.
Cheers.

I'm picturing a guy at a club talking to a girl and occasionally turning his head and wiping his eye with his middle finger at other guys around him

 

[Neogonodactylus]

The most extensive study of differences in sexual behavior between the sexes is Crissy Huffard's dissertation research on Abdopus aculeatus. I've attached the pdf. THere will be at least one more paper coming out on sex differences and another on female courtship behavior.

Roy

 

[DWhatley]

Crissy's observations kept reminding me of the Australian cuttlefish video I recently rewatched, especially the sneaker male actions and the extended mating time.