…penises.
*Female insects with “penises” have been discovered in Brazil - the first example of an animal with sex-reversed genitalia, scientists say.
Neotrogla females insert the erectile organs into males’ vagina-like openings.
The elaborate structure, dubbed a “gynosome”, is used to suck out sperm and nutritious seminal fluids.*
Link.:eek:
I don’t know much about insects but how do they decide, anyway? I mean, I would look at these things and…
Actually, no. I would not look at these things. I am not clicking on that link.
So, it’s not just vampire sex. It’s two to three day long vampire sex.
That just sucks.
…with a crushing gynosome-envy complex
Hmm… a lot like mouth and tongue.
You gotta wonder why gamete size is a greater criterion than having a penis or a vagina. But I’m no biologist…
There are a lot of sexually-reproducing species where neither sex has a penis. Most birds, for instance.
I thought female hyenas…needed something like a cup.
More or less.
Not actual hardware…buuuutt…
Ignorance deleted.
It makes sense that if one sex contributes only DNA and the other contributes an egg, the egg-producing one is the female.
The “bigger gamete” is the hair-splitting version of that same distinction.
My guess is that if there was a case where the bigger gamete was almost entirely DNA and meaningless stuff taking up space, and the smaller one contributed most of the organelles for the resulting fertilized cell, they’d adjust the definition so that it’s the one that contributes the most complexity, rather than mere size.
But until we find a funky example like that, size matters.
Of course, it’s biology and evolution, so my guess is that chances are good we’ll find an example that challenges the definition. I bet that happens with just about any biological definition.
I’ll bet they have the best orgasms on earth.
IIRC Due to needing to compete in dominance battles, the female hyenas clitoris has gotten so big it’s a pseudo phallus. They give birth through the pseudo phallus.
>wince<
Well, at least the neotrogla stick together. From the article:
^ Typical dude.
In this case, it’s even simpler than that. The “penis” works in reverse, sucking the male gametes into the female. The gametes still combine in the female, and the female lays the eggs. And it appears that she consumes the male, since the BBC article mentions getting nutrients from the male. The “penis” is the only thing that seems to be male about her.
Indeed. Lord have mercy. Dissection photo of relevant organs. Safe for work because the photo does not appear until one scrolls.
:eek: