drhoz
in
wtf_nature
The Saga of Beewolf
Because my last post, in retrospect, seems to me to give the many females of the biological world slightly short shrift, a post that makes clear the fact that in the vast majority of species it's the females that have their menfolk by the short and curlies.
( Although there are exceptions. In species where quality males - or sometimes ANY males - are in short supply, it's the females that go mad, violent, competitive or just plain stupid in the pursuit of sex )
Male Beewolves of the species Philanthus bicinctus are largish sphecoid wasps, and having fueled up on nectar, claim and mark a territory and zoom off in pursuit of any insect that flies past. If that other insect happens to a robber fly, it will probably be the last thing he ever does. As Chris Catton & James Grey put it in their book Sex in Nature -
"...if robber-flies had a sense of humour, they would certainly tell jokes about beewolves."
And if the object of his affections really IS a female beewolf, he probably thinks this is his lucky day.
It isn't.
Because the odds are that she's already mated, and is out stocking up her larder. This species of beewolf usually hunt bumble-bees ( it's common name is Bumblebeewolf ) and as far as she's concerned male beewolves aren't very different. I can quite easily picture the scene...
Female Philanthus : Mmmmm... What a big healthy male you are. I want you to have my babies.
Male Philanthus : Er... Aren't I the one who's supposed to say that?
Female Philanthus : *grins evilly, pounces, stings him until he's paralysed, and stuffs him into a burrow with one of her eggs, to be slowly eaten alive by someone else's kid*
Male Philanthus : Bugger.
And you can guarantee that they'll keep on being this dim, because any male beewolf that doesn't let his gonads do his thinking for him is almost certainly going to lose out to one that already has and got lucky.
( Although there are exceptions. In species where quality males - or sometimes ANY males - are in short supply, it's the females that go mad, violent, competitive or just plain stupid in the pursuit of sex )
Male Beewolves of the species Philanthus bicinctus are largish sphecoid wasps, and having fueled up on nectar, claim and mark a territory and zoom off in pursuit of any insect that flies past. If that other insect happens to a robber fly, it will probably be the last thing he ever does. As Chris Catton & James Grey put it in their book Sex in Nature -
"...if robber-flies had a sense of humour, they would certainly tell jokes about beewolves."
And if the object of his affections really IS a female beewolf, he probably thinks this is his lucky day.
It isn't.
Because the odds are that she's already mated, and is out stocking up her larder. This species of beewolf usually hunt bumble-bees ( it's common name is Bumblebeewolf ) and as far as she's concerned male beewolves aren't very different. I can quite easily picture the scene...
Female Philanthus : Mmmmm... What a big healthy male you are. I want you to have my babies.
Male Philanthus : Er... Aren't I the one who's supposed to say that?
Female Philanthus : *grins evilly, pounces, stings him until he's paralysed, and stuffs him into a burrow with one of her eggs, to be slowly eaten alive by someone else's kid*
Male Philanthus : Bugger.
And you can guarantee that they'll keep on being this dim, because any male beewolf that doesn't let his gonads do his thinking for him is almost certainly going to lose out to one that already has and got lucky.