“It’s a common enough thing, but it has a fairly rococo penis.” – Dr. Michael L. May, quoted in It’s Complicated: Dragonfly Love Comes Calling – via the New York Times.
In case you’re wondering, as I did when I first read that quote, rococo means “excessively ornate or intricate.”
And it’s true. Dragonfly penises are accessorized with horns, brushes, hooks, grabbers, spreaders, or other implements designed to assist the deposit or retrieval of sperm. When mating, they’ll use their – ahem – tool to remove sperm any other males may have deposited in a female in hopes of increasingly the likelihood that theirs will ultimately produce offspring.
Similarly interesting, researchers studying dragonflies in the Swiss Alps have found the females will sometimes fake their own deaths to avoid mating. “A scientist has observed that female moorland hawker dragonflies freeze mid-air, crash to the ground, and lie motionless when faced with aggressive males.” Read the full story:
Why Female Dragonflies Go to Extreme Lengths to Avoid Sex
