Eating sperm is good for you, if you are a Austrlian female southern bottletail squid. Biologists have discovered that during intercourse, this type of squid eats the sperm of her male counterpart.

This is an act never seen before in the cephalopod kingdom, a group of animals that include squid, octopus, cuttlefish, and nautilus. Animals outside of this group also indulge. According to Discovery News, carrion flies, picture wing flies, marine nudibrach, and some of us humans engage in sperm swallowing.

The reason why the this squid swallows sperm is to use the nutrients to assist in the development of the unfertilized eggs. Smaller females tend to devour moreof the substance than larger females.

The southern bottletail squid resides in a sandy habitat near seagrass beds on the coast of South Australia. Staying buried in the sand during the day, at night the squid comes out to eat small crustaceans. Since these squids live for one year, mating starts at an early age, and their eggs tend to be connected to the base of seaweeds or seagrass blades.

With such a short lifespan, males have to be strategic when seeking mates. In the sexual reproduction process, the female stores the male's spem in an external pouch under her mouths for later egg fertilization. However, some of the sperm packages, called spermatophores, are also swallowed in order for the eggs to be created in the first place.

The spermatophores take a long time for males to produce and they need to insert them several times into a female for the eggs to fertilize. In fact, the sperm pod she uses to nuture the unfertilized egg may be an advantage for the next squid that come along to mate with her.

In this species, the sperm storage can last for about three weeks. If no eggs are laid before that timeframe runs out, then the spermatophore consumption becomes a nutritious food source.

This leaves room to question whether the female squids are using the males for successful reproduction or for food. Either way, it is all in the name of survival.