The story involves shocking sex so I thought “Maybe I should forward this to Savage,” but it also involves a female’s right to choose so I thought maybe I should forward it to ECB, but it also involves creepy doings in the natural world so I thought maybe I should forward it to Charles. Then I said fuck it and decided to post it myself: BBC News on the prosecutable-in-the-human-world impregnation rituals of the spider they call the Harpactea sadistica:
A violent but evolutionarily effective mating strategy has been spotted in spiders from Israel. Males of the aptly-named Harpactea sadistica species pierce the abdomen of females, fertilising their eggs directly in the ovaries. The so-called traumatic insemination gives the first male to inseminate a reproductive advantage by bypassing structures in the females’ genitalia…
Read the whole sexy thing here. (Also, the picture above features not actual spiders but life-sized rubber dolls apparently designed for spider sex play.)
“Spider sex play” = maximum sexiness fail.
Isabella Rosellini already told me all about this in Green Porno. Where have you guys been?
http://link.brightcove.com/services/play…
Kinky.
Green Porno is pretty funny stuff.
Octopi also pierce one another for insemination.
Bedbugs do this too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbugs#Rep…
doh i was just going to say that bedbugs do it too!
But I can add that there is a wonderful essay on it, in the book Flight of the Iguana by David Quammen.
Wow, Fnarf, turns out you’re wrong. Apparently Isabella Rossellini can even manage to make spider sex play sexy.
Mind you, Isabella Rossellini could probably make reading a shopping list sexy.
If there’s one thing I learned from reading The Myth of Monogamy, it’s that animals do some freaky shit.
Hey, whatever floats your boat. Or weaves your web, as the case may be.
Opening sentence for the win, Schmader.
SPIDER SEX PLAY?!?!
Ok, I’ve been reading Dan for years and nothing – NOT ONE THING – he’s ever discussed has been as disturbing as the idea of spider sex play.
Schmader, you just out-weirded Savage.
To be fair, the female probably eats the male right after he’s done. The insect world is grisly, folks.
i’m still sadly imagining those spiders are rubber gloves for groping and fondling.
it’s a bad day for the vanilla-sexual.
I find it hilarious when people anthropomorphize mating behavior in non-humans.
Too soon for J. G. Ballard jokes?
That’s awesome, David.
Alas, I hope those Craigslist perverts don’t get any weird ideas.
Haha, amazing!
I found some informations in German about Insemination:
http://www.cryobank-muenchen.de/Insemina…