![]() Unlike M.lignano, this flatworm never sucks out sperm after sex, and its sperm is very different. This disturbing act is found throughout the animal kingdom – from bedbugs to spiders – and it’s aptly known as “ traumatic insemination”. Instead, one flatworm mounts the other and stabs its needle-shaped stylet straight through its partner’s skin, ejaculating directly into the body. It’s also a hermaphrodite but it never forms mating rings. Watch them go at it here.Ī closely related species of flatworm – Macrostomum hystrix – has a very different sex life. They form a little sexual ring, often spinning as they mate. When two of them mate, their male organs (the stylets) penetrate each other’s female organs (the antrums) at the same time. For this flatworm, every individual is both male and female – they are hermaphrodites. Even after the worm tries, you can often see several sperm sticking out of the genital opening. These barbed sperm can’t be sucked out easily. Further down, two large backwards-pointing bristles also help to hold the sperm in place. At its front, it has a sinuous ‘feeler’ that is uses to anchor itself into the walls of the female genitals. It has a very different shape to the tadpole-like figure of human sperm. It’s an easy fix that gives the female control over who fertilises her eggs.īut the sperm can put up a fight. After sex, if a female has been filled with unwanted sperm from an undesirable partner, it can double over, put its mouth over its genital opening, and suck the sperm back out. Take the common species Macrostomum lignano. The combatants are flatworms and though their bodies are simple, their sexual habits are anything but. In the wet sands of Italy’s beaches, an epic battle of the sexes is playing out. ![]()
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