Seminar Two
Evolution of sexuality
Sex in nature

Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation

In the delightful book Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, the evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson writes a Dear-Abby column to an imaginary readership of animals of all kinds. One column is an exchange with a queen bee:

Dear Dr. Tatiana,

I'm a queen bee, and I'm worried. All my lovers leave their genitals inside me and then drop dead. Is this normal?

Perplexed in Cloverhill

Dear Perplexed,

For your lovers, this is the way the world ends—with a bang… When a male honeybee reaches his climax, he explodes, his genitals ripped from his body with a loud snap. I can see why you find it unnerving. Why does it happen?

Alas, Your Majesty, your lovers explode on purpose. By leaving their genitals inside you, they block you up. In doing so, each male hopes you will not be able to mate with another… His mutilated member is… the honeybee version of a chastity belt…

With mating strategies, Judson adds, the only rule is that there are no rules. True monogamy, she writes, is “one of the most deviant behaviors in biology.”

A pair of stick insects mating
A pair of stick insects mates. As its name suggests, the stick insect resembles the twigs where it typically lives, providing it with a most efficient defensive camouflage against predators.
Photography by Greg and Mary Beth Dimijian
A swarm of termites mating in Costa Rica
In the Golfo Dulce of southwestern Costa Rica, a swarm of mating termites overwhelms anything that gets in its path, including photographers!
Photography by Greg and Mary Beth Dimijian
Pupal mating of two Zebra longwing
Two male Zebra Longwing butterflies await the emergence of the female from her pupa, competing for the chance to fertilize her eggs. She hardly gets the chance to spread her wings!
Photography by Greg and Mary Beth Dimijian
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NOTES
Judson, Olivia. Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation. Metropolitan Books, 2002. ISBN 978-1-417-62624-3.
Zourakov, Andrei. “Pupal mating in Zebra longwing (Heliconinius charithonia): photographic evidence.” News of the Lepidopterists' Society (2008) 50 (1), 27–32.
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