BY EVOLVING a “shield” for their genitals, female red-backed water striders from east Asia can call the shots in the mating game.
So say and of Seoul National University, South Korea, after detailed experiments and anatomical analyses of the water strider Gerris gracilicornis (PLoS ONE, ).
Suitors have to “sing” for the female – tapping out rippling rhythms on the surface of the water with the tips of their long mid-legs, the pair discovered. If the 15-minute performance passes muster, then and only then will the female lift her genital shield and consent to sex.
“This is exactly the kind of thing…
