It pays to cheat: tactical deception in a cephalopod social signalling system

Abstract

Signals in intraspecific communication should be inherently honest; otherwise the system is prone to collapse. Theory predicts, however, that honest signalling systems are susceptible to invasion by cheats, the extent of which is largely mediated by fear of reprisal. Cuttlefish facultatively change their shape and colour, an ability that evolved to avoid predators and capture prey. Here, we show that this ability is tactically employed by male mourning cuttlefish ( Sepia plangon ) to mislead conspecifics during courtship in a specific social context amenable to cheating 39 per cent of the time, while it was never employed in other social contexts. Males deceive rival males by displaying male courtship patterns to receptive females on one side of the body, and simultaneously displaying female patterns to a single rival male on the other, thus preventing the rival from disrupting courtship. The use of tactical deception in such a complex communication network indicates that sociality has played a key role in the cognitive evolution of cephalopods.

Dynamic biophotonics: female squid exhibit sexually dimorphic tunable leucophores and iridocytes

“…As seen in the well-studied examples of male mimicry in some insects and lizards (Svensson et al, 2009), this could provide a selective advantage during periods of male aggression, but a disadvantage when mates are scarce; in insects and lizards, this mimicry varies as a result of genetic polymorphism, while in the squid, it could vary dynamically under neuronal control. Cuttlefish, Sepia apama (Hanlon et al, 2005) and Sepia plangon (Brown et al, 2012), have been shown to use rapid reversible sexual mimicry in mating interactions, but in these cases it is the males that mimic female coloration to stealthily gain access to female mates.…”

Multi‐functional crest display in hoopoes Upupa epops

“…For instance, visual signals are sometimes accompanied by a behavioural display (Bitton and Doucet ), so the signal becomes more conspicuous. Such displays are common in many taxa such as molluscs (Brown et al ), arthropods (crustaceans, Arnott and Elwood ; insects, Brown and Porras ) and chordates (reptiles, Eifler and Eifler ; birds, Andersson and Iwasa , Bitton and Doucet ; or mammals, Gol'din ). They may have evolved to amplify information conveyed in visual signals emitted to conspecifics (in intra‐ or intersexual contexts) as well as to heterospecifics.…”

Evidence for tactical concealment in a wild primate

“…This flexible use of behaviour includes the active falsification of signals and the withholding of specific signals 5,6 . Current evidence for tactical deception comes primarily from either anecdotal reports or captive studies across several taxa [7][8][9][10] , with rather limited empirical evidence coming from wild/freeranging populations [11][12][13] .…”