May 11, 2012
                                               Trout faking orgasms? Yes it is true!

In 2001, a Swedish researcher (Erik Petterson) did a research experiment on mating behavior and spawning in trouts. He found that 69 out of 117 times, the female trout faked her orgasm. You might ask why the female trout is doing so. The researcher explains that after the female has dug a gravel for for her eggs, she positions herself and wait for an easily tricked male to come by. If the female is not completely satisfied with the males position, she simply does not release any eggs, she just pretend that she does. The male release his sperm unaware that it is just going to waste. To CBC radio, Peterson says that the male trout behaves like it is confused, because normally after the spawning has taken place, the female cover the fertilized eggs.  But in this case, after she has faked an orgasm, she simply starts preparing a new gravel, waiting for another male who satisfies her expectations of becoming her offspring's father. 

(The article was published in Animal Behavior Vol.61, no.2). (February, 2001)

Here are some others sources:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2002/05/17trout_orgasm020517.html

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=681&sid=2619241

May 13, 2012
                          

The Mating Behavior of the Leopard Slug 

The most fascinating and bizarre behavior of the Leopard slug is its mating “dance.” After two slugs meet to reproduce, their ritual starts on the ground by interwinding with one another. Next they both climb up a tree or a wall. Once they found the perfect height they produce a slime rope that they will hang in the air from (about 16 in). The slugs continues to spin around each other. Because the slugs are both hermaphrodites, their penises also starts spinning around as well. After this “dance” is over, one of the slugs will crawl up while it eats the slime-rope, and the other falls to the ground. Each slug might have as much as 200 fertilized eggs each that are all potential slugs if they survive until the following spring when they hatch.

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/leopard_slug.htm

http://www.molluscs.at/gastropoda/terrestrial.html?/gastropoda/terrestrial/limax.html


May 14, 2012
                                                                The 17-Year Locusts

The 17-year locusts are native for North America and does not exists anywhere else in the world. The name 17-year locusts comes from the 17 years spent underneath the ground before they emerge to the surface. The periodical cicada crawls to the surface as soon spring has arrived. For 10 days the males are trying their best to impress the female by making this buzzing sound. The female respond with a snapping sound (similar to snapping fingers). The female can lay 400-600 eggs, preferably in a tree. After six to eight weeks, the future 17-year locusts hatch and start digging their way underneath the ground where they stay for 17 years until they dig their way back up from the soil.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/steincarter/cicadas.htm

http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/periodical-cicada

May 14, 2012

The Pistol Shrimp

The Big Claw Snapping Shrimp is a type of shrimp that can stun its pray by snapping its claw.  If there are many shrimps snapping their claws at the same time, the sound can be so intense that it disturbs sonars on ships and submarines. About a year ago, a group of scientists found that it is not only the sound that makes its pray unconscious, but it is actually a bubble released from the claw. The bubble is so fast and and is also extremely hot, so it knocks out the pistol shrimp’s pray like it would if it had an actual pistol. If you watch the video it is not the claws snapping that makes the sound, but it is the bubble bursting that you can hear.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1003_SnappingShrimp.html

http://www.sms.si.edu/irlfieldguide/alpheu_hetero.htm