Report Slicing off a bug's penis is bad for reproduction, study concludes

[tom_mai78101]

A team of researchers has demonstrated the simultaneously unsurprising and highly disturbing fact that cutting various lengths off an insect's penis can make it more difficult to reproduce.

But the findings aren't as self-evident as they may seem, largely because the bug in question is so generously-endowed to begin with. The team from the universities of St Andrews and Bristol focused their attentions on Lygaeus simulans, a small bug just 11mm long, the males of which have penises almost two-thirds their body length and which is normally forced to drag its appendage beneath itself like a length of rope.

The bugs interested the team not just for its dimensions: the penis of the Lygaeus simulans is also devoid of nerves, muscles and blood vessels, and is apparently far longer than can capably be accommodated by the female bug.

The researchers wanted to know why the bug's penis was so long -- and as such what might happen if they were to make an... adjustment.

Read more here. (Wired)

 

[KMilz]

If this headline wasn't deliberately trying to be funny, it would be godamned hilarious.

 

[Prometheus]

Eureka! This is why my ladybugs aren't breeding!

 

[FireCat]

Cruelty! No?

 

[Varine]

Not in the slightest.

 

[KMilz]

Cruelty! No?

Remember, their dicks were getting dragged along the ground behind them before the penis reduction surgery. The scientists were only trying to help.

 

[FireCat]

Remember, their dicks were getting dragged along the ground behind them before the penis reduction surgery. The scientists were only trying to help.

So, they asked for help ? Any anesthesia before and pain medications after surgery ? Hmm

 

[Varine]

I don't think bugs feel pain like we do.