The cheating side
Cephalopods—tentacled molluscs such as octopus, squid and cuttlefish—are reckoned by many zoologists to be the most intelligent of invertebrates. If intelligence includes the ability to deceive, then further evidence of that proposition has just been published by Culum Brown and his colleagues at the University of Sydney, in Biology Letters. Most species of cephalopod are covered in cells called chromatophores which allow them to change colour at will. Cephalopods use this ability both for disguise and for signalling to others of their kind. Dr Brown, however, has found that Sepia plangon, a species of cuttlefish, has gone a step further. Some males, when courting, display their courtship signals on only one side of their bodies, that which is facing the object of their desire. The other side actually mimics a female, thus throwing potential rivals off the scent.