Nereis succinea nuptial dance

This video was recorded in Eel Pond, Woods Hole, MA on July 27, 2022, at 9:10 pm, just off the end of the boat dock of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute behind the Redfield Laboratory Building (Water Street).  The "not so red" animal mentioned in the sound track is a female N. succinea.  A male worm (and then several more shortly after) swims up near the female and they both start to dance (rapid small circles).  The dances continue with what is likely to be a second female attracting other males to circle.

In recent laboratory experiments, conducted in space provided by Dr. Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser (Redfield Laboratory of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Jeffrey Ram and Michal Ram showed that Nereis succinea males responsive (measureable ejaculation) to cysteine-glutathione-disulfide (CySSG, the identified pheromore by which females stimulate males to dance and ejaculate) also responded in a similar way to etelcalcetide, at concentrations about 100-fold higher than required to elicit responses with CySSG.

Above video shows the male spawning response to a small squirt (5 ul 10exp-5 M of CySSG)