The NY Times science section yesterday had a *fascinating *article about dragonfly wangs:
*Look *at those photos on page two! Makes you want to hang around dragonfly bars with a lotus blossom behind one ear. “The lateral lobes . . . are nice and long and spread really widely . . . And the inflatable parts are large and have little hairs on them. You can see it’s a complex organ . . . Likewise the puffy, bristly structure at the end of the penis known as the median lobe . . . .The smooth hood behind the median lobe, and the thumblike, stubbled anterior lobe? Functions unknown. Ditto the skinny, hornlike cornu."
They are a lot smaller than elephant equipment, but festive complexity is more important than brute size!
Let me be the first to say: eeek! It’s got a built-in speculum! That right there is probably the most anti-sexy thing you could possibly add to a wang.
Although I must say, it’s a great article that can use the words “hard-boiled the genitalia”.
Great article! I’ve read similar things in Science about male fruit flies pleasure giving behaviors, and cockroach penises (IIRC “They unfold like complicated Swiss army knives”)
There’s something about wangs and the Straight Dope. The above link is to the very first article from the Dope that I ever read. Not about dragonflies, but still…