Shocking sex secrets of insects!

I have a fun Opinion piece to direct you to titled 'Shocking Sex Secrets of Insects'- written by Marlene Zuk and published recently in the New York Times.

The image below illustrates the recent finding reported by Li et al, 2013 in a paper titled "Forever Love: The Hitherto Earliest Record of Copulating Insects from the Middle Jurassic of China".

Image: Shu LiChungkun ShihChen WangHong PangDong Ren

The Opinion article by Dr. Zuk starts as follows:

"PROSTITUTION is supposedly the oldest profession, which means that sex itself must be one of the oldest behaviors, a conclusion underscored by the recent discovery of two bugs fossilized as they coupled 165 million years ago. Simply being ancient doesn’t make a sex act interesting, but this one was noteworthy in part because behavior is generally so ephemeral, leaving none of the preserved remains we rely upon to tell us about how early forms of life ate, or ran, or saw the world."

Keep reading her article by clicking here.

Dr. Zuk is author of "Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love and Language From the Insect World" and is a very engaging writer.  Her book Sexual Selections is my favorite and is responsible in part for me pursuing certain lines of inquiry during my PhD work.  I highly recommend it but have heard good things about the book shown below.

What makes male bats sexy to lady bats? How do bats get lucky? Daft punk meets bat research!

 

Please enjoy the following excellent video on how to get lucky if you are a Mystacina bat.

Enjoy some Daft Punk while you are at it!

These cute bats (Mystacina tuberculata) are New Zealand's resident bat commonly called the New Zealand Lesser Short-tailed Bat.  They are a fascinating little bat but for now I'll let the video entice you to learn more about them.  

This video comes from the research being doing by Cory Toth at University of Auckland and if you like it please head over to YouTube and give Cory a 'like'!  His video is currently in a competition (ASSAB Video Competition).

Daft Punk if you don't know them:

bat sperm!

Post-field update: I've returned home, almost caught up on sleep and grocery shopping but most importantly I am happy to report that I've been able to find and photograph BAT SPERM!  While I have a lot of work to do with my samples this seemed like news worth sharing.

So here is is- my first successful bat sperm sample! Join with me to marvel at this tiny wonder (below).

This particular sample is from an Artibeus jamaicensis (the Jamaican fruit bat).  The sperm is as of yet unstained but at least here it is in all of it's glory for a quick glimpse!

Crowd funding and hemipenes

I know its been some time since I've posted a blog- but- it is time!  Why you might ask?  Well primarily because I have a few minutes to catch my breath and more importantly tell you about an exciting project that has been listed on Rockethub for crowd funding.

(If you need an photo to grab your curiosity look no further!)

Photo: C. Gilman (from http://www.rockethub.com/projects/21959-hemipenes-evolutionary-novelty-or-a-new-twist-on-an-old-trick)

This lovely project titled Hemipenes: evolutionary novelty, or a new twist on an old trick will investigate the development of hemi...wait did I say pens? that sounds sort of like 'penis'...  yes hemipens!  That's right two penises!  Lizards happen to have two (as do other squamates) but how do these two functional intermittent organs develop?  Do they develop the same way that a usual 'ol penis does?  Well- my dear friend and labmate Casey Gilman - has a project ready to go to find out!  Stop by her Rockethub page to see her COOL video to learn more!  (For example- do you find yourself curious if they use both at once?  Go to find out by watching Casey's video)!

Why should you care about hemipenes? 

Well according to Casey a PhD candidate at UMass Amherst "Because of differences in general morphology (two versus one), and some observable differences during development, hemipenes have been considered by some to be an evolutionary novelty. However, there is still no agreement about whether hemipenes and the single penis found in other amniotes are homologous (that is, they come from a common ancestor), or are indeed novel."