Cross-dressing cuttlefish is Casanova of the reef

Independent
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
20 January 2005


Scientists call it "facultative female mimicry" but to everyone else it is known as cross-dressing and the leading exponent of the art was revealed yesterday as the humble cuttlefish.

A pioneering study of the giant cuttlefish's sex life has revealed that some males pose as females to mate furtively beneath the noses of other males.

Marine biologists spent hundreds of hours diving off a remote Australian coral reef to film the sneaky antics of some male cuttlefish who donned female colouring and behaviour to get past males guarding a female. In less than a second, a male cuttlefish can pull in his telltale fourth arms - which are distinctively white - and change his skin colour to a mottled, female-like complexion.

Carrying his other arms in the typical posture of egg-laying females, the cross-dressed male sidles up to a receptive female and copulates with her while her butch-looking mate looks the other way.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=602593

"Gay cuttlefish!"