Female animals raping males? Any species do this?

[Mtgman]

There are innumerable examples of species where males force copulation with unwilling females. There are even examples of animals who have evolved traits to factilitate rape.

though most male animals expend a great deal of time and energy enticing females, forced copulation. rape. also occurs, at least occasionally, in a variety of insects, birds, fishes, reptiles, amphibians, marine mammals and nonhuman primates. In some animal species, moreover, rape is commonplace. In many scorpionfly species, for instance. insects that one of us (Thornhill) has studied in depth. males have two well-formulated strategies for mating. Either they offer the female a nuptial gift (a mass of hardened saliva they have produced, or a dead insect) or they chase a female and take her by force.

A remarkable feature of these scorpionflies is an appendage that seems specially designed for rape. Called the notal organ, it is a clamp on the top of the male. s abdomen with which he can grab on to one of the female. s forewings during mating, to prevent her escape. Besides rape, the notal organ does not appear to have any other function. For example, when the notal organs of males are experimentally covered with beeswax, to keep them from functioning, the males cannot rape. Such males still mate successfully, however, when they are allowed to present nuptial gifts to females. And other experiments have shown that the notal organ is not an adaptation for transferring sperm: in unforced mating, the organ contributes nothing to insemination.

Humans are only species I know of where a female can use the rape strategy for reproducive success. Are there others? Is the question made entirely pointless by the overwhelming sex drive of the male? It is said that you can’t rape the willing and males are very often willing.

I’m thinking some species which mates for life may exhibit this behavior. A female finds a likely male and instead of going through courtship rituals, during which some rival female may out-compete her, she skips all that and forces the coupling. I know the females of some species become extremely aggressive during their fertile cycles(yowling cats for one). Are there any species where the female takes this to the extreme and forcibly copulates with an unwilling male?

Enjoy,
Steven

[Mr.Moto]

Perhaps the praying mantis?

[BrainGlutton]

Not on Earth, perhaps . . .

http://sir.real.50megs.com/comix/catalog/screen/BizarreSex10.htm