Bug Sex (part 1)
Have you ever wondered how insects have sex? Well wonder no further, as my next two blogs are aimed at the unravelling the mystery of the bees and the bees. Starting with the ladies …
Female insects, some molluscs and worms have a spermathecae, a sex organ designed to receive and store sperm until use. They vary a lot between species; some being simple pockets and others complex coiled structures. The spermatheca acts like a bag, allowing the female to gather sperm from inside to fertilise her eggs – she can even select sperm from a specific male to father her offspring. A young queen bee can mate with over 100 males in a single spawning event, yet still carefully distinguish who fathers which eggs. In the social insects (ants, bees, wasps and termites), the females benefit from sleeping around. If their children have different fathers, the colony will be more genetically diverse and resistant to disease. However, if there are too many fathers the colony won’t be closely related enough to function properly.
Other insects such as aphids don’t have spermathecae, they don’t even have males for most of the year. The female aphid is born pregnant, and reproduces parthenogenetically, cloning themselves to create identical daughters. Males don’t emerge until autumn, when they mate with as many females as possible before dying.
So that is how the ladybugs lady bits work =)
The Spermatheca of a Tarantula, the sperm are deposited and collected by the hairs.
