It is believed that Loligo winters offshore in the deeper waters of the continental slope. In the later spring, schools of Loligo begin arriving in the waters off Woods Hole to begin their egg-laying. Loligo is a social spawner, with each female depositing her eggs in a communal egg mass. The area around the egg mass is a spectacle of social activity. Squids exhibit a wide array of color, pattern and postural changes to carry out this behavior. Individuals as well as mated pairs congregate in this area. Large males escort individual females as she deposits an egg capsule. They warn away or place themselves in the way of other males who come too close. If pair has mated, a copulation would have resulted in the placement of a sperm packet into the mantle of the female. The sperm packet, or spermatophore, is placed there with one of the male's specialized arms, the hectocotylus.

The male stays with the female until she deposits an egg capule, each with 200 eggs, enclosed in a gelatinous matrix. She holds this egg capsule in her arms in a characteristic cone-shaped pattern. The egg capsule is inserted in the egg mass and attached by the female. One end of the egg capsule is devoid of eggs and sticky. It is entwined around the existing eggs until it is held fast.

The spawning of the this squid heralds the arrival of a short intense fishing season for this animal. Dozens of trawlers can be seen in the waters of Vineyard Sound. They are a very important source of protein. As a schooling animal they can be caught in great numbers. A sizeable squid fishery for close relatives of our Loligo occurs on the West Coast where fishing boats use huge bright lights to attract squid to the surface where they are netted. Other techniques for trapping squid include the use of wiers, baited hooks, and white lures studded with spines called squid jigs that squid find irresistable.

Increased fishing pressure on Loligo and other squid have caused a growing concern among biologists and conservationists. This concern has also revealed a lack of substantial information on the life histories of many of the exploited species of Loligo. The sort of information that fisheries managers and agencies need in order to adequately protect a species from over-fishing includes reproduction, behavior, fecundity and age.

For the past few springs, MBL researchers have been collecting information on the spawning of Loligo and have discovered some very interesting behaviors that are forcing them to revise their view of the genetic makeup of the Loligo population, and which also will have some bearing as to how to better assess the population dynamics of the species. There now seems to be several other tactics employed by Loligo males to ensure their genetic contribution to the next generation. The most interesting involves the tactics of so-called "sneaker males." These are lone males waiting on the periphery of the egg mass for pairs approaching to deposit their egg capsule. These males are often smaller than the paired males who have won their way to copulation through their larger size and successful fighting against other males. The sneaker male waits for an opportune moment to seize the female quickly and deposit his own sperm on the egg capsule before the female has placed it on the egg mass and before the rival male can react.

This behavior has been noted in several other species of squid and is the topic of a recent paper in The Biological Bulletin. Much more remains to be learned about this mechanism of secual selection in this complex and fascinating mating systems. For a broad interpretation of reproductive strategies in cephalopods, consult Chapter 6 in Hanlon and Messenger (1996).