2008-08-16

Eating for life


Image revised from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/thematerialworld_20060511.shtml

Being a living creature, your main issue - whether you like it or not - is to mature and survive long enough to produce offsprings. Internet-using animals (usually known as humans) are lucky to have evolved to a point where its beneficial to have living and caring parents, monogamous partners that like to see you happy and healthy, and to enjoy being part of a continous social Homo sapiens-pack. Many species aren't that lucky.

For example, the limbless amphibian Boulengerula taitanus starts its life by eating its mother. Actually, the teeth of this little beeing have evolved perfectly for this task. The mother survives this horrifying motherhood state (when one layer is eaten, there's another one underneith), and will live to see her gene pool grow up and perhaps enjoy one more round of being breakfast, lunch and dinner all at once.

Then, we have sexual cannibalism. The females of Latrodectus hasselti (a subspecies of the Black widows) likes to end the copulation by devouring the male. If he manages to leave the scene without being eaten, he's still doomed because of all the injuries that comes with the sexual procedure. Beats snuff-movies both in gore and intelligence.


Image revised from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Red_back_spider_closeup.jpg

The mating behaviour of the Mantis religiosa (the praying mantid) starts off with a very cautious male closing in on a female. The odds are kind of against him; he's at a 31% risk of having to leave this world after having accomplished a mating. Paradoxially he's more attracted to larger females that - if they're hungry - further lower his chance of getting out alive.


Image revised from http://damecarcass.blogspot.com/2008/03/hunger-in-living-room.html


Sources: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0412_060412_flesh_eating.html http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/ZO9920001.htm
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=5377394

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