Male squid with underdog mating strategy also make giant swarming sperm.

Photo:opencageThe sex life of the coastal squid (Loligo bleekeri) is pretty complicated. First off, the females get to mate with multiple males (a perk called polyandry) that come in two flavors. First, you've got your "consort males." These (literally) big boys use pimpin' color-changing displays to woo the ladies, and if she's down for it, he deposits his sperm into her oviduct and proceeds to hang around to make sure that his is the only sperm in there. Then, you've got your "sneaker males." These underdogs are small and can't contend with with consort males. Instead, right when the female is about to lay her eggs, these little guys swoop in and mate with the female and leave their sperm all over HER FACE. You might think that this, in terms of producing squid babbies, would be a total fail. But you would be wrong, because it turns out that ...