Tiny Penis Drumsticks

Like so many other crickets, a Roesel’s bush cricket sings to attract his mate. But his courtship doesn’t stop once a female finds him. As they have sex he’ll use a pair of tiny drumsticks on his genitals to show her he’s the rhythm master she wants to father her young. The structures are called titillators; they’re small stiff rods that sit at the base of the penis and are inserted into a female during sex ...

The drumming seems to be an important sexual step for this cricket. Females often tried to stop mating with males whose titillators had been removed–especially in the males who were left with only one drumstick. And even when the females put up with their rhythm-impaired mates, the males were less successful in getting their sperm to stick.

Read the rest of the story here.

Snapdragon | Bug Circus Generator

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Thanks, Rick

Monkey Monday | Caterpillar Entertains Gorillas

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Laurent Seroussi | Insectes

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Photographer and graphic designer Laurent Seroussi combines the beauty of the human female form with fascinating, symmetrical, and leggy bug bodies in this project entitled Insectes. The fantasy creations incorporate sleek female figures blending with the bodies of insects in extremely realistic and well-photoshopped depictions.

According to his bio, "Laurent Seroussi’s multifaceted imagery brings together his background in both graphic design and moving imagery. His immediate work stretches the imagination with playful visual tricks and postproduction wizardry." Seroussi personifies the insects that crawl or fly around us by merging strong bodies, human faces, and the fine details of these segmented creatures. As the feminine faces glance over their shoulders or close their eyes with sleek and sensual expressions, Seroussi romanticizes the small creatures that we otherwise chase out of our lives and our homes.

Dangerous Minds and My Modern Met

Devil's Mantis

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This impressive agonistic display is by the Devil's Mantis [Idolomantis diabolica], one of the largest [up to 5 inches long] species of praying mantis that mimics flowers.

The Water Boatman's Singing Penis

Encyclopedia Brittanica Mobile

A tiny water boatman is the loudest animal on Earth relative to its body size, a study has revealed. Scientists from France and Scotland recorded the aquatic animal "singing" at up to 99.2 decibels, the equivalent of listening to a loud orchestra play while sitting in the front row. The insect makes the sound by rubbing its penis against its abdomen in a process known as "stridulation". Researchers say the song is a courtship display performed to attract a mate.

Micronecta scholtzi are freshwater insects measuring just 2mm that are common across Europe. In a study published in the journal PLoS One, the scientists discovered that the small animals make a mighty sound. The team of biologists and engineering experts recorded the insects using specialist underwater microphones. On average, the songs of M. scholtzi reached 78.9 decibels, comparable to a passing freight train. "We were very surprised. We first thought that the sound was coming from larger aquatic species such as a Sigara species [of] lesser water boatmen," said engineering expert Dr James Windmill from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

"When we identified without any doubt the sound source, we spent a lot of time making absolutely sure that our recordings of the sounds were calibrated correctly."

Dr Windmill explained that the reason the insects don't deafen us is down to the bug's underwater lifestyle. Although 99% of the sound is lost when transferring from water to air, the songs were still loud enough to be audible to the human ear. "The song is so loud that a person walking along the bank can actually hear these tiny creatures singing from the bottom of the river," said Dr Windmill.

Read more about the water boatman and stridulation and listen to them "singing" at BBC Nature.

Titanus Giganteus | The Biggest Beetle, And, Oh Jeebus, It Can Fly

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The Titan beetle (Titanus giganteus) is the largest known beetle in the Amazon rainforest and one of the largest insect species in the world. It is from the family Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles). The titan beetle is the only member of its own genus. It is known from the rain forests of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the Guianas, and north-central Brazil, where it is most commonly collected by the use of mercury-vapor lamps, to which the males are attracted. There is a local 'cottage industry' in French Guiana of leading tours specifically to collect specimens of this beetle (which can command prices over US$500), and other countries' ecotourism agencies mention these beetles in their advertisements.

Adults can grow up to 6.5 inches (16.7 cm) in length[1]. It is said that their mandibles can snap pencils in half and cut into human flesh. Adult titan beetles do not feed, they simply fly around to find mates. They are attracted to bright lights after dark. There is an extensive sequence towards the end of Sir David Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth series (in the version released in the UK) which prominently features a hunt for this beetle. In it, an adult specimen was found and brought back to Oxford University. Because the adults do not eat, this specimen was cared for until it died.

The larvae have never been found, but are thought to feed inside wood and may take several years to reach full size before they pupate. Boreholes thought to be created by titan beetle larvae seem to fit a grub over two inches wide and perhaps as much as one foot long. A famous "life-size" photograph of a putative larva of this beetle appeared in National Geographic Magazine, filling an entire page, but it was of a different species of beetle, possibly Macrodontia cervicornis.

The adults defend themselves by hissing in warning, and have sharp spines as well as strong jaws.

Flowers Wilt. Chocolates Melt. Roaches Are Forever.

Can't decide on what to get that special someone for Valentine's Day? Sometimes the answer is all around us, and right where it's been for millions of years—like cockroaches! How better to express your appreciation for that special someone than to name a Madagascar hissing cockroach after them?

Naming a roach in honor of someone near and dear to your heart shows that you've noticed how resilient, resourceful, and loyal that person is. Or maybe it's in recognition of your one and only's virility, or strength in the face of high radiation. You're not afraid to say, "Baby, you're a roach!"

But not just any roach ... He or she is a Madagascar hissing roach, the biggest and loudest of these stalwart insects. Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo has 58,000 of these brown, iridescent beauties, and they need names. With a $10 donation, one of them can be named by you. How sweet!

We'll send a truly memorable certificate of honor to that certain someone explaining that there's a special insect living at the Bronx Zoo with his or her name on it.

Your donation will help the Wildlife Conservation Society conserve endangered species around the world.

Insect Sushi And Other Insect-y Recipes

Putting your prejudices aside can lead to different, and possibly better, experiences — such as eating insects.

A recipe book recently published by Shoichi Uchiyama may be quite an eye-opener for many people in this sense. But be prepared before opening the 256-page book — some of the 64 color photos of bug recipes may leave you feeling a little queasy. The meals in the pictures range from huge cockroaches soaked in pink vinegar soup, half-raw fat hornet larvae, huge moth pupae simmered with sugar, and a pizza covered with giant water bugs, spiders, caterpillars and adult hornets.

Uchiyama, who lives in Tokyo and holds a food sanitation license, has his own reasons to justify his bug-eating crusade. He argues that insects are almost the perfect food for human beings, were it not for our emotional aversion — nurtured by society — to insects. "Everybody says bugs taste good even if they taste them only once," said Uchiyama ... To get his point across, Uchiyama recently published the book "Tanoshii Konchu Ryori" ("Enjoyable Bug-eating Recipes"), featuring 80 bug-eating recipes in Japanese, Western and other ethnic styles, as well as bug-based desserts.

Academic studies have shown insects are rich in nutrition and many are even more nutritionally balanced than meat or fish, Uchiyama pointed out. In addition, they grow much faster and require less feed than animals and fish, and leftover vegetables are enough to farm many kinds of bugs. They grow in small spaces and don't compete with human beings over food, Uchiyama said. "I think a food shortage will emerge as a global problem in the near future. Insects will play a big role in solving that problem."

More at Japan Times

Via Neatorama

For Rick, with thanks for all the awesome sushi you've prepared for us in the past and with zero expectations for any insect-bedecked sushi in the future.

Happy Monday

More beautiful nature photography at Pixdaus.