doing it

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"Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it."

“Doing it.” Okay, that's a bit too crass, even lowbrow tawdry. Cole Porter can get away with it but, perhaps, not me.

But the millions of species found in nature use a dizzying array of reproduction techniques. Obviously the male and female have to get close to one another, at least for a moment in time.

With grasshoppers, the textbook description reads:

“The orthopteran courtship and mating behaviors are among some of the 'most complex and fascinating spectacles in the insect world, 'involving sound production and visual, tactile and olfactory signals" (The couple in the photo are in the intimate tactile stage.)

"During reproduction, the male grasshopper (in this case, the smaller blue tinted one) introduces sperm into the vagina through its aedeagus and inserts its spermatophore, a package containing the sperm, into the female's (the larger gold tinted one) ovipositor. The spermatophore, or sperm sack, can also include a large packet of nutritious proteins known as a spermatophylax. The sperm enters the eggs through fine canals called micropyles.

The female then lays the fertilized egg pod, using her ovipositor and abdomen to insert the eggs about one to two inches underground, although they can also be laid in plant roots or even manure. The egg pod contains several dozens of tightly packed eggs that look like thin rice grains. The eggs stay there through the winter, and hatch when the weather has warmed sufficiently.”

i.e. doing it.



- Photo by Wayne Mallinger

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