“Torture” Phalluses
(made you click, didn't I? Well I took that title straight from National Geographic, so take it up with their editorial department...not mine!)
“As we have long suspected…the longest and spiniest male genitalia is the one who gets the “job done” most often…”
And thus I give you photos of the large, spiny beetle phalluses:
C. maculatus - "Has the longest and spiniest male genitalia, which resemble "medieval torture instruments,"
But they also get the job done: Sperm from male seed beetles with the longest and spiniest sexual organs beat out their shorter competition in a recent study, to be reported in the March 10, 2009, issue of the journal Current Biology.
The seed beetle species C. subinnotatus has a strange, jawlike structure on its genitalia (above, a close-up).
- The genitalia of the C. analis beetle is covered in spines from base to tip.
As male seed beetles’ genitalia have evolved to be spinier, the bugs’ reproductive success has improved, experts say in a study to be released in March 2009.
At the same time, females’ genitalia have evolved in a sort of “arms race,” the study says.
Females have thick padding on their reproductive tract that’s reinforced with strong, elastic connective tissue. After each mating—about five to ten in a lifetime—the wounds heal and leave scar tissue.
Wounding females during mating is likely just an “unfortunate side effect” of the males’ reproductive strategy, the study authors said.
- C. subinnotatus).
To obtain close-up views of seed beetles’ spiny male genitalia (above, hooks, spines, and barbs in C. rhodesianus), scientists first put the insect under carbon dioxide anesthesia.The scientists then pumped up the sexual organ with a tiny artificial inflator powered by a water-jet vacuum pump.
Once fully inflated, the genitalia were stabilized in 212-degree-Fahrenheit (100-degree-Celsius) water and photographed.
They “inflated” the genitalia??? A water-jet vacuum pump? That I’d love to have seen video of!!! Beetle penis-pump porn!!!
