LITTLE is known of what lives in the depths of the sea, much less how the creatures of darkness live and die, hunt and eat, play and reproduce. Nevertheless, two scientists in Australia have managed to shed light on the sex life of the giant squid, the most famous of legendary sea monsters.

The evidence suggests that the male is a rather violent lover, grabbing the female in the darkness and injecting sperm into her skin at high pressure, creating a small wound. Later, the sperm is used to fertilize eggs.

Rough sex is not unknown in the animal kingdom. Females of several species eat their mates. Some garden snails use darts in reproduction.

But the discovery of surly conduct in the giant squid -- the world's largest known invertebrate, a colossus up to 70 feet long that has haunted man's seafaring past like a bad dream -- only reinforces the idea that nature does whatever it takes to promote the cause of procreation.