Mating Behaviours

[nugget]

Hellooo,

My recent fascinations in the mating behaviours of animals lead me to learn the weirdest things!!

Oh my goodness especially invertebrates wooow they are amazing creatures,and they have so many different evolved behaviours that are quite unique.

Sexual cannibalism is something quite interesting although i understand it in spiders and if you think about it its actually a beneficial behaviour to be eaten after the second mating , because once both their pedipalps are used, they cant mate anyway.

But did you know, mantids actually copulate much much longer when the female eats the males head while she is eating him as they mate, it improves the copulation and its reasonable to say assures fertilization success!!

by the way i strongly recommend Life in the Undergrowth.... those cameras can capture things you can only imagine when reading research papers!!!!

Attenborough is really my idol To be able to encapsulate a non-scientific audience and communicate to them is something that is great!! Our work will be more appreciated too =)

Just wanted to share that =) Invertebrates are often unappreciated!!

[Dr.Stein]

You're not alone, I love to study mating behaviours too Actually not only for mating, but all behaviours

Take a look at my lovely seahorse's mating behaviour, they are totally awesome!

[nugget]

Your Seahorses sound awesome id love to know more about them!!

[canalon]

A must read on the subject, un and full of info and references is: Dr.Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson

[Dr.Stein]

Your Seahorses sound awesome id love to know more about them!!

Yeah, very much. They mate for three days and nights, started by greeting to each other in the early morning by making a sound "click-click" generated from their tiny jaws, then they start to make a pair-bond. They keep changing color and perform a very romantic, long-lasting sexual dancing ritual before at the end when the female decided to save eggs to her partner, to allow him to be "pregnant"

[sachin]

Are these behaviours dependent of habitat in which organism live?

[nugget]

well not necessarily on their environments, just that there is amazing competition out there to find a mate and find the best one. environment does of course have effect on mating behaviours for hting slike where they may lay their eggs, or if they brood, or if they fertilize internally or externally, however its mainly competition. There is lots of physiological competitiion to, which also happens in humans. Sperm competition where a portion of the ejaculate are kamikazee sperm lol they are there to kill of any competition sperm. They have all these structures with their genitalia and behaviours just to get the mate over other competition. Sexual selection over natural selection sometimes because often any secondary sexual characteristics they may have may be detrimental to their survival, like Guppie fish i htink it is have a huge gonopod, which females prefer, but as they get bigger they are more likely to be predated on.

[Amrik]

wow...seahorse copulation is so so romanticc! hahaha!

[sachin]

well not necessarily on their environments, just that there is amazing competition out there to find a mate and find the best one. environment does of course have effect on mating behaviours for hting slike where they may lay their eggs, or if they brood, or if they fertilize internally or externally, however its mainly competition. There is lots of physiological competitiion to, which also happens in humans. Sperm competition where a portion of the ejaculate are kamikazee sperm lol they are there to kill of any competition sperm. They have all these structures with their genitalia and behaviours just to get the mate over other competition. Sexual selection over natural selection sometimes because often any secondary sexual characteristics they may have may be detrimental to their survival, like Guppie fish i htink it is have a huge gonopod, which females prefer, but as they get bigger they are more likely to be predated on.

Got it; It helped lot. Thank you.

[nugget]

hehe any time ...
:p
its so cool though isnt it?

[sachin]

Yeh........

[nugget]

What else are your research interests Dr Stein? if you dont mind sharing that is... =)