Quoted By:
While we're discussing mating habits, here are some fun parts that I remember:
- Both males and females in Dinoponera ants mate only once in their lives, as the dominant female bites off the tip of the male's abdomen and keeps his detached penis inside her to prevent additional matings.
- Males of other animals detach their penises willingly to block their competitors, in Tidarren spiders the pedipalps are even designed to pump sperm into the female for several hours after being removed from the male. These appendages are so heavy that the male must amputate one of his own "penises" to even walk.
- Lacking any aperture to deposit their massive numbers of eggs and sperm, some nereid worms simply fill their entire bodies with gametes and develop into well-muscled swimming forms, before surfacing and exploding in unison with their fellow worms.
- Taking this one step further, syllid worms turn their tails into mobile sex drones with highly developed eyes and even a simple brain, detaching them to mate from a distance while remaining in the safety of their burrows. One of them even grows tail-branches like a tree.
- Female bagworms are such shy animals that they never leave the confines of their refuges, with about 30% remaining virgins for their entire lives. Adult males cannot enter their bags, and in order to reach these elusive shut-ins, must stretch their abdomens up to thrice their original sizes. The male sometimes fails to find the female's genital aperture and dies trapped in her case.
- Armored catfish like Corydoras are able to get pregnant from fellatio, drinking the male's sperm directly from the source and depositing it on their eggs after passing it through their digestive systems. Some velvet worms are even more capable in this department, boasting specialized cells that allow them to directly absorb sperm from their skin and get impregnated from any location on their body.
