Science news of the day thread.

[Tero]

Oops, I meant climate science news thread.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Oops, I meant climate science news thread.

Want it moving, Tero?

[Tero]

Sure.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Done. The thread in question may now be found here... http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 5#p1502375

[FBM]

Meet G. tridens May turn out to be fake. Not sure.

[hackenslash]

Been doing a little digging. I can't find any indication that this is a hoax beyond mere suspicion but, according to sources, this species has been known since 1910, so why the sudden appearance?

Cool if real, but the spidey-sense is tingling

[FBM]

Yeah, I'm still a little wary of it.

[rachelbean]

Seems to be a legit insect, but this is a good article that questions the verdict on the ant/spider assumptions: http://www.biodiversityinfocus.com/blog ... -thinking/

[FBM]

Ah-ha! Thanks for that, rachel!

[Calilasseia]

Meanwhile ...

Now this one is truly a prime candidate for the Bizarre Mating Strategies thread I launched some time ago at the other place (the Ratz version is here). Courtesy of BBC News ...

Female insects with "penises" have been discovered in Brazil - the first example of an animal with sex-reversed genitalia, scientists say.

Neotrogla females insert the erectile organs into males' vagina-like openings.

The elaborate structure, dubbed a "gynosome", is used to suck out sperm and nutritious seminal fluids.

Copulation lasts an impressive 40-70 hours, the researchers report in Current Biology.

"Although sex-role reversal has been identified in several different animals, Neotrogla is the only example in which the intromittent organ is also reversed," said lead author Kazunori Yoshizawa from Hokkaido University in Japan.

Yes, you read that correctly ... insects whose females have a penis-like structure emerging from the genital opening, and whose males have a genital structure resembling a vagina.

As for that paper in Current Biology, the paper in question is this one:

Female Penis, Male Vagina, And Their Correlated Evolution In A Cave Insect by Kazunori Yoshizawa, Rodrigo L. Ferreira, Yoshitaka Kamimura & Charles Lienhard, Current Biology, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.022

Highlights

•Females of the cave insect genus Neotrogla have an elaborate penis-like organ
•The female penis acts as an intromittent organ and anchors the female to the male
•Correlated evolution is detected between the female penis and male genitalia

Summary

Sex-specific elaborations are common in animals and have attracted the attention of many biologists, including Darwin [ 1 ]. It is accepted that sexual selection promotes the evolution of sex-specific elaborations. Due to the faster replenishment rate of gametes, males generally have higher potential reproductive and optimal mating rates than females. Therefore, sexual selection acts strongly on males [ 2 ], leading to the rapid evolution and diversification of male genitalia [ 3 ]. Male genitalia are sometimes used as devices for coercive holding of females as a result of sexual conflict over mating [ 4, 5 ]. In contrast, female genitalia are usually simple. Here we report the reversal of intromittent organs in the insect genus Neotrogla (Psocodea: Prionoglarididae) from Brazilian caves. Females have a highly elaborate, penis-like structure, the gynosome, while males lack an intromittent organ. The gynosome has species-specific elaborations, such as numerous spines that fit species-specific pouches in the simple male genital chamber. During prolonged copulation (∼40–70 hr), a large and potentially nutritious ejaculate is transferred from the male via the gynosome. The correlated genital evolution in Neotrogla is probably driven by reversed sexual selection with females competing for seminal gifts. Nothing similar is known among sex-role reversed animals.

At the moment, the full paper is behind a paywall, but I'm told it's lavishly illustrated. Complete with lots of detailed photographs of the genitalia in action.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Old news, Cali. There is a whole thread about this somewhere...

[JimC]

...used to suck out sperm and nutritious seminal fluids....

It's a communist plot to drain them of their vital bodily fluids!

[tattuchu]

Meet G. tridens May turn out to be fake. Not sure.

What the fucking fuck?

[FBM]

rEv just reminded me that the Lyrid meteor shower is peaking tonight. Thought someone else might be interested.

[Calilasseia]

Meet G. tridens May turn out to be fake. Not sure.

What the fucking fuck?

It's for real. It's a Tephritid fly (related to Drosophila) living in the Middle East. It's a documented part of the fauna of Israel, courtesy of thiss paper, and from this paper, it's a documented part of the fauna of Iran.

There's a nice paper on the evolution of fruit fly wing patterns here. Also see this paper. See also this paper for more on the underlying genetics, and this paper among several others, this paper also providing useful insights. This paper is also worth a look.