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Post by Jorji Costava on Oct 22, 2015 20:45:12 GMT -6
Gonna bring this thread back with some water insects:  Because of the distribution of their body weight and the surface tension of water, water striders are able to 'walk' on water (basically, the way it happens is too complicated for me to want to explain it in depth here). Some evolutionary biologists think that water striders exhibit 'group selection,' a highly contested theory in evolutionary biology. Water strider males roughly divide into two categories; super aggressive assholes who just pretty much rape females and passive wimps who hope that the females will grace them with their presence. Within groups, the assholes are far more reproductively successful. But groups of water striders consisting mostly of the wimps reproduce at a much higher rate than groups with more assholes. Superficially, this looks like group selection: Traits which decrease individual fitness arise because groups which have them can outcompete other groups. Again, group selection is highly controversial (actually this is an understatement), but it's interesting to think about anyways.  i is a species of water boatman measuring just 2mm in length. Despite their small size, they are the loudest creatures in proportion to their size on earth. They are capable of producing sounds of up to 99 decibels (which is louder than a train whizzing by). The way they do this is by rubbing their penises against their abdomens; this apparently confers some sort of reproductive edge, but it's not clear what that is. Fortunately, 99% of the sound doesn't get past the water, so "bug penis-induced deafness" is not a medical condition that is likely to afflict you. On the other end of the size spectrum is the giant water bug; it can reach over four inches in length. Giant water bugs are known to have an extremely painful bite (thus the nickname "toe biter," not to be confused with Toe Cutter from Mad Max). They are also able to play dead pretty convincingly, so if you see what looks like a dead water bug, watch out. In addition, giant water bugs exhibit an unusual mating strategy; the insect pictured above, with all the eggs on its back, is in fact the male. The female takes on the role of actively finding mates, and then lays its eggs on the wings of the male, who guards the eggs until they hatch. I'll just close by saying this post ended up being way more bug sex themed than I anticipated when I started it. Carry on. |
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Here's a picture of some otters holding hands to serve as brain bleach for you:
