Three scholars this week confessed to a repeatedly spying on in flagrante octopuses.

Biologists Christine Huffard, Roy Caldwell and Farnis Boneka snorkelled around multiple couples of Abdopus aculeatus and found they have far more complex mating behaviours that previously thought (press release, with videos).

These behaviours include “sneaker matings, mate guarding, sex-specific body patterns, frequent copulations, and male–male competition for mates” they write in Marine Biology. Or, as the press release puts it, “such sophisticated lovemaking tactics as flirting, passionate handholding and keeping rivals at arms’ length”.

I wasn’t aware that flirting and handholding counted as “sophisticated lovemaking tactics” in California, but nevermind.

“This is the first study to show a level of sophistication not previously known in the sexual behavior of an octopus,” says Caldwell.

Some octopuses jealously guarded their particular female’s nest, strangling rivals. Sneakier octopuses pretended to be female to sidle up to potential lovers.

He says most what is known about octopus sex comes from laboratory observations of just a few species, noting “We got it wrong before, and what this tells us is that we need to do a lot more fieldwork.”

“We quickly realized that Abdopus aculeatus broke all the ‘rules’ — doing the near opposite of every hypothesis we’d formed based on aquarium studies,” adds Huffard.

Headline watch

Love in the octopus’ garden – Reuters

Octopi Get Leg Up on Sexual Competition – Wired (over AP copy)

Octopus love – his hands were all over me – News.com.au

Study: Octopuses Kinky Creatures of Sea – AP

Image top: male octopus (right) mates with a female / Roy L. Caldwell/UC Berkeley

Image bottom: male octopus’s or mating arm (pink lining) inserted into female’s mantle / Roy L. Caldwell/UC Berkeley