Go figure: Scientists discover female insect with a PENIS

by Zara Mustapha

penis

It is not a hermaphrodite but then, this little-known Brazilian insect takes sex change to a new level.

The insect – a  cave-dwerlling Neotrogla female has a ‘penis’ which scientists say uses to mate with her male partner.

The bizarre thing is that the  Neotrogla male according to scientists has a ‘much-reduced, vagina-like opening.’

Their sex life would be the envy of most humans as they can go up to 70 hours of non-stop couplation.

Daily Mail reports:

‘Although sex-role reversal has been identified in several different animals, Neotrogla is the only example in which the intromittent organ is also reversed,’ said lead scientist Dr Kazunori Yoshizawa, from Hokkaido University in Japan.

A study of four species of the Neotrogla genus showed that the penis-like structure of the female, called a gynosome, is inserted into males and used to receive capsules of nutrient and sperm.

 Once within a male, part of the gynosome inflates and projects spines which anchor the two insects together.

The scientists found it impossible to pull coupling males and females apart without causing injury.

Their description of Neotrogla’s strange mating habits is published in the journal Current Biology.

Scientists described four insect species that dwell in extremely dry caves in Brazil, feed on bat guano and possess what the researchers called an ‘evolutionary novelty.’

The females have an elaborate, penis-like organ while the males have a vagina-like opening into which females insert their organ during mating sessions that last 40 to 70 hours.

The researchers said these attributes make the four species of the insect genus Neotrogla unique in the world.

‘Evolution of novelties like a female penis is exceptionally rare. That’s why I was really surprised to see the structure,’ Yoshizawa said.

 
These are Neotrogla curvata insects in copula, which can last for up to 70 hours. The Neotrogla insects are small - 0.1 to 0.15 inches long (2.5 to 3.8 mm) - and superficially look like flies

These are Neotrogla curvata insects in copula, which can last for up to 70 hours. The Neotrogla insects are small – 0.1 to 0.15 inches long (2.5 to 3.8 mm) – and superficially look like flies

Yoshizawa said that although sex-role reversal has been documented in several different types of animals, these insects are the sole example in which the ‘intromittent organ’ – the male sex organ – is reversed.

The Neotrogla insects are small – 0.1 to 0.15 inches long (2.5 to 3.8 millimetres) – and superficially look like flies, with nothing particularly unusual about their appearance aside from their genital structures.

Yoshizawa said the females of Neotrogla can hold male mates coercively using their gynosome.

‘Because the female anchoring force is very strong, a male’s strong resistance may cause damage to his genitalia,’ Yoshizawa said.

‘Therefore, it is very likely that entire mating processes are controlled actively by females, whereas males are rather passive.’

A Brazilian researcher who was studying cave ecosystems first came across the insects, then enlisted an insect expert to examine the previously unknown bugs. 

It was at that point that the unique attributes of the female Neotrogla were discovered, leading to the current study.

Yoshizawa cited other unusual examples of sex organs among animals, including female seahorses that use an organ to deposit eggs within a male’s brood pouch and a kind of mite whose females have a long genital tube.

By the definition of female – an organism that produces egg cells that are larger than the sperm cells produced by males – ‘even with the penis-like intromittent organ, females of Neotrogla are still female,’ Yoshizawa said.

But Yoshizawa added: ‘Females of Neotrogla likely represent the most “macho” females among animals discovered to date.’

 

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