SEXUAL ACTIVITIES OF THE SQUID, LOLIGO 
PEALII (LES.) 
I, COPULATION, EGG-LAYING AND FERTILIZATION 
GILMAN A. DREW 
From the University of Maine, Orono, Maine 
THIRTEEN FIGURES 
FOUR PLATES 
This account, which deals with some of the sexual activities 
of the squid, is based upon observation made on specimens kept in 
glass sided aquaria at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods 
Hole, Mass. Specimens caught in the fish traps of the immediate 
vicinity may, by careful handling, be kept in aquaria in fairly 
good condition for a number of days. Such specimens occasion- 
ally copulate and eggs are sometimes laid. 
There are two methods of copulation. By one method the sper- 
matophores ejaculate their contentsso the sperm reservoirs thrown 
from them are attached in a special depression on the inner side 
of the outer buccal membrane opposite the junction of the two 
ventral arms (figs. 8 and 10). They then slowly emit sperm, 
which are carried to and stored in, a special sperm receptacle 
that opens near this depression and is imbedded in the tissue of 
the outer buccal membrane (figs. 10 and 11). In this receptacle 
the sperm are mixed with a secretion and are not active. How 
long the sperm may be retained in the receptacle is not known, 
but there is some reason to think that they may be retained for 
at least some weeks. Females with eggs that can be fertilized 
may be found during the four months, June to late September, 
that I have worked at Woods Hole. Without exception every 
adult female that had not spawned had the sperm receptacle filled 
more or less completely with sperm, although in many cases the 
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