A researcher at the University of Rhode Island has observed a never-before-seen defensive strategy in which the squid leaves the tips of its arms attached to the predator as a distraction, the Science Daily reported.
The study noted that when the foot-long octopus squid (Octopoteuthis deletron) found deep in the northeast Pacific Ocean "jettisons its arms" in self-defense, the bioluminescent tips continue to twitch and glow, creating a diversion that enables the squid to escape from predators.
"If a predator is trying to attack them, they may dig the hooks on their arms into the predator's skin. Then the squid jets away and leaves its arm tips stuck to the predator," postdoctoral researcher Stephanie Bush was quoted as saying by the paper.
"The wriggling, bioluminescing arms might give the predator pause enough to allow the squid to get away," Bush said, adding that the squids re-grow their missing arms.
Using a remotely operated vehicle in the Monterey Bay Submarine Canyon off the coast of California, Bush poked at a squid with a bottlebrush.
"The very first time we tried it, the squid spread its arms wide and it was lighting up like fireworks," she said.
The discovery was published in the July issue of the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.
The URI scientist's current research focuses on a tiny squid that lives in the Gulf of California that migrates every day from the dark depths where there is little oxygen to the surface waters to feed.
