Today's biological map ~ look at this guy coming from afar, does he look like a hermit crab?

however, if you look closely, you will find that something is wrong.

this is actually a tiger spot squid (Sepia pharaonis). It doesn't have a hard shell or articulated legs. It's all faked.

take a closer look, this guy has changed his color and disguised himself as a hermit crab with his tentacles, which is really similar to a hermit crab at first glance.

recently, researchers at the University of Ryukyu reported the interesting behavior of this squid. When they raised the squid in the laboratory, they discovered their unique "hermit crab step".

so why does the squid pose like this? The specific reasons behind this need to be further verified, but the researchers have made some speculations. Pretending to be hermit crabs may have two benefits to these squid:

These collections easily match to all occasions.

on the one hand, you can fool predators. Make predators think that soft squid are hermit crabs with hard shells, which reduces their risk of being eaten.

on the other hand, this trick may also be useful for prey. Hermit crabs mostly rely on filter food or picking up to get food, rarely take the initiative to catch fish. So if these squid pretend to be hermit crabs when they hunt, they can let the fish off guard and prevent them from escaping.

(according to the researchers' observation, the squid posing as hermit crabs did catch more fish near their prey)

of course, when it comes to camouflage, the mimic octopus is better. Read more: move the picture to appreciate: transform, mimic octopus!

Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2133229-watch-cuttlefish-apparently-pretending-to-walk-just-like-crabs/

original thesis: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10164-017-0519-7