Male squid are propelled into an immediate fighting frenzy by contact with squid eggs — a response, researchers say, to a pheromone identified on the eggs' surface. The protein, Loligo β-MSP, is the first aggression pheromone from a marine animal to be characterized at the molecular level. Its similarity to proteins found in mammalian seminal fluids suggests that these may also have a role in sexual competition.
Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and his team isolated the protein and applied it to the surface of a clear glass flask containing eggs. They found that male squid (Loligo pealeii, pictured) began to push and bite each other violently within seconds of touching the glass, competing for females as they do after contact with natural eggs. The pheromone, which is made by female reproductive glands, may help to focus males' competitive aggression when mature, receptive females are nearby.
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Fighters egged on by pheromones. Nature 470, 438 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/470438a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/470438a
