14 DAY TRIAL // Female opalescent inshore squid are masters of deceit. Thus, researchers say that, whenever they wish to escape male attention that is anything but welcomed, these females trick the boys into thinking they themselves are guys and therefore not worthy of attention.
They achieve this with the help of special cells that grow underneath their fins.
Live Science tells us that these cells reflect light and that, under certain circumstances, they create the illusion that the female opalescent inshore squid has male gonads.
It goes without saying that, more often than not, this illusion discourages males from trying to establish contact.
Wildlife researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara suspect that female squid belonging to this species mainly use this trick to chase away males whose behavior strikes them as aggressive and therefore unappealing.