reproductive organs

11.22.09

Ouch!

Close-up photos of weevils' "torture phalluses"

By M. Farbman Posted 02.27.2009 at 10:40 am 4 Comments

Researchers have found that, for male seed beetles with "torture phalluses", the longer and spinier the better. The "pretty mean" genital is covered in spines along its entire length and causes internal injury to the female beetles, who -- not too surprisingly -- are built with thick padding to withstand mating. (To get these pics of the toothy, horny beetle genitalia, the scientists pumped them up with a vacuum pump -- just like Austin Powers!)

Also in today's links: many more oddities of the animal kingdom.

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READ MORE ABOUT > animals, insects, links, missing links, reproductive organs, sex

Spiders in Love

Animal behavior: Male G. cancriformis spiders prefer to mate with virgins.

By Gunjan Sinha Posted 05.06.2002 at 5:26 pm 0 Comments

When a male spider of the species G. cancriformis goes a-courtin', it's in his evolutionary interest to choose a virgin. That's because a female's first mate almost always gets to fertilize her eggs, while subsequent males wind up with nothing to show for their ardor. Which made Todd Bukowski, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona at Tucson, wonder: How good are these male spiders at spotting virgins?

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