First detailed description of the burying behaviour of a bottletail squid, Sepiadarium kochii Steenstrup, 1881

ABSTRACT

Bottletail squids (Cephalopoda: Sepiadariidae) spend the daytime buried in sediment; however, their burying behaviour has not yet been described in detail. In the present study, the burying pattern of a single tropical bottletail squid Sepiadarium kochii Steenstrup, 1881 is analysed for different behavioural characteristics. Burying in S. kochii consists of a rapid sequence of strong, alternating forward- and backward directed funnel jets which obscure the individual almost fully with sediment, followed by a single flinging movement of the dorsolateral arm pair to cover the remaining exposed body parts with sand. A comparison of the burying pattern of S. kochii with that of closely related bobtail squids (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae) is drawn. Moreover, differences between these two cephalopod families in terms of the execution and duration of their burying procedure as well as its behavioural use are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Cephalopod
• cryptic behaviour
• ecology
• predator avoidance
• sediment
• Sepiadariidae

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Michael Kuba, Tamar Gutnick, Teresa Iglesias, Keishu Asada, Takahiro Nishibayashi, Zdenek Lajbner, Ryuta Nakajima and Jonathan Miller of the OIST Marine Science Station for their help and support. CD was supported by the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Research Internship Program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).