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See other Religion ArticlesTitle: Even penguins pay for love
Source:
Chicago Sun-Times
URL Source: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-prost09.html
Published: Feb 9, 2005
Author: GARY WISBY
Post Date: 2005-02-09 22:07:18 by Flintlock
Keywords: penguins, Even, love
Views: 2982
Comments: 9
Even penguins pay for love
February 9, 2005
BY GARY WISBY Environment Reporter
When a man lavishes his lady friend with sweets, flowers and dinner on Valentine's Day, we call it love.
When a woman insists on material gain before surrendering her favors, we call it something else.
But prostitution isn't limited to the human species. Even in the animal kingdom, where such shenanigans go back millions of years, it "seems to live up to its reputation as the oldest profession," says an article in the February/March issue of National Wildlife magazine.
For example, a female decorated cricket won't have sex with a male until he delivers his bag of sperm inside an edible gelatinous mass.
"It's like a ball inside a catcher's mitt," Scott Sakaluk, a behavioral ecologist at Illinois State University in Normal, told the Sun-Times. "The mitt is a food gift."
When she mounts him, the male cricket attaches the package to her genitalia so a tube can drain sperm into her body. She bends around, tears off the meal portion and starts eating.
Actually, the gift is of little value.
"It's like a big Gummy Bear," Sakaluk said. "It excites her taste receptors, but it's not very nutritious at all."
The male must not cheat, however. If the meal is too small it won't keep the female busy for the 50 to 55 minutes it takes to fully inseminate her, and she'll eat the sperm ball as well.
Mates known to eat their dates
The stakes are even higher for dance flies. If the male doesn't treat her to dinner, he becomes the meal, said University of Illinois entomologist Gilbert Waldbauer.
"But in some dance flies, the gift has evolved into a ritualistic and purely symbolic gesture," he said.
The meal is another insect gift-wrapped in a silk balloon, but some guy flies have found they can get away with presenting an empty balloon.
"Why she accepts it, nobody knows," Waldbauer said.
Not every kind of insect is so lucky. Praying mantises are among the species whose males, if it's unlikely they will find another mate, let themselves be eaten to give females more energy to make eggs.
"The best thing he can do is become a meal for his mate," Waldbauer said. "It's the ultimate gift."
Stones are traded for affection
Diamonds, of course, may be a girl's best friend, but Lady Adelie penguins prefer real rocks.
They need them to keep their eggs dry and off the cold ground, and will leave their mates and offer themselves to single males in return for stones.
Sometimes, like a hooker ripping off a drunken john, a bird will make off with a stone before the male can have his way with her.
Fiona Hunter, a University of Sheffield, England, zoologist told National Wildlife, "It's as if she takes the money and runs."
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