MBL March Madness: Flamboyant Cuttlefish

Flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi) are brilliantly colorful cephalopods from the Indo-Pacific region and can be found off the northern coast of Australia, Southern New Guinea, and various islands of the Philippines. The flamboyant cuttlefish has some of the best camouflage in the animal kingdom. Recent research from the MBL found that camouflage is its primary mode of defense and it’s what the cuttlefish looks like most of the time. But when a predator or threatening object (such as a SCUBA diver) comes too close, the cuttlefish will flash its famous flamboyant display—switching from camouflage to flamboyant in as quickly as 700 milliseconds. The vibrant colors (white, yellow, red, and brown) of the flamboyant display are combined with apparent “waves” of dark brown color that produce a dazzling and dizzying kaleidoscope of motion, color, and patterning.  Fast neural control of many thousands of chromatophore organs in the skin enable this unique signaling capability – all turned on or off in less than a second and changed depending on the behavioral context of the courtship, or in the case of defense, the fish predators that discover them.

Fun Facts: 

• Males are typically only half the size of full-grown females. Males will try and court the females by turning their body ghostly white except for pink arm tips. He then vibrates, and bobs back and forth in front of the female until she accepts his display.
• Flamboyant cuttlefish can capture prey  up to 2-3 body lengths away using two long, elastic feeding tentacles. The tentacles are transparent, so unsuspecting prey can’t see what's coming. 
• Females lay transparent eggs and full embryonic development can be observed with the naked eye. When fully developed, a hatchling will emerge as a tiny version of its parents.