Some might call it worm porn, but a video showing a male worm preparing to mate with a hermaphrodite could equally be described as balletic in its graceful movement.
Allyson Whittaker and of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, study the nervous control of mating behaviour in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
Their art-house-esque video, filmed through a microscope, shows the male gliding around the hermaphrodite, which does not actively co-operate in mating.
Spicules
The male presses the front side of his tail against the hermaphrodite, while he backs along and searches for the vulva. The tail, controlled by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, embraces the hermaphrodite, curling round in its quest for the vulva.
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On finding it, the male inserts copulatory structures called spicules and mating commences. There are six steps involved in worm mating behaviour.
The researchers say their video provides a better understanding of the molecular and neuro-muscular pathways that regulate male tail posture during mating.
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