Image: berniedup |
This Indo-Pacific sea slug only reaches (4 in) long at most, but don't let its size fool you! Get your magnifying glass out and be prepared for some very impressive reproductive feats!
Image: Stephen Childs |
It's a bit like sleeping head-to-toe with someone, which is weird because I thought that was supposed to stop this sort of thing.
Image: Sekizawa et al., Biology Letters Side by side slugs, side by side penises |
And then their penises fall off. Actually they wander around with their penis hanging out for about 20 minutes and THEN their penis falls off.
Image: berniedup |
As it turns out, only 1 cm (0.4 in) of their penis pokes out of the body to perform the act. The whole organ is more like 3 cm (1.2 in) long, with the rest coiled up within their body. After 24 hours, this coiled part is able to make a whole new penis!
Image: Stephen Childs Easy come, easy go, easy come again |
And why do they do this? The penis is covered in backward pointing spines, possibly to remove the previously deposited sperm of rivals. It could be that all those spines make it difficult to unplug the thing from their partner's female parts.
When they said "all's fair in love and war", I didn't realise that included amputation.
.....
Check out the original paper, Sekizawa et al in Biology Letters
1 comment:
Terrible, I know. Things ended up getting less romantic and more dirty!
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