Male hedgehogs use a vaginal plug during sex to prevent other male conquests of their mate.
Fruit flies sperm inspires domestic chores
Fruit flies sperm makes females do more housework.
While the exhausted male takes it easy and has a doze, a chemical in sperm spurs females into an intense period of domestic activity.
Such is the effect on the female, it can see them cleaning and tidying for up to ten days.
Fly sperm is coated with a ‘sex peptide’ which prompts the period of domestic activity in females.
A better understanding of how chemicals affect sleep patterns could shed light on neurological disorders such as narcolepsy, said Prof Elwyn Isaac from the University of Leeds, England.
Fruit flies are supposedly a good model for looking at human sleep behaviour as they share many traits with us. ‘It’s well documented that coaches advise their teams to practise celibacy before an important match,’ said Prof Isaac.
‘Mating made the male flies very lazy and they took a long siesta period afterwards. But the females became much more active and busy,’ he added.
‘They also developed a much more adventurous lifestyle than virgin females, flying around to forage, find nesting sites and perform domestic-type duties.’
He added that the chemical makes female flies form an attachment to their mate and reject other males.
‘Once the female has mated, if a different male performs a courtship ritual and tries to mount her she will kick him away,’ he added.
‘The chemical makes her reject all other suitors.’
Deep Sea Angler Fish – Two Becomes One
The Deep Sea Angler fish lives thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean where there
is little food or light. Life is hard and lonely for the young male angler fish as it slowly sinks
from the surface where it grew up. At about a thousand metres down, it metamorphoses. It
gets big teeth, big eyes, and loses its digestive tract.
In this state, it has only one chance of survival: having sex. In the distance, he spies a dim light. He is in luck, it is a single “unattached” female! The male, who is only a fraction of her size, grabs hold of her with his teeth. Over time, his skin and blood vessels start to fuse with hers. His skin gets tougher, his eyes start shrinking, and any unnecessary organ wastes away. He is now totally reliant on her and in fact, is part of her. The male has become simply a source of sperm. Like Ashton Kutcher.
