Science News | Genital spines keep a male wasp from becoming a frog’s snack | Science News @ScienceNewsMag | Uploaded January 2023 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
Two thin spines shown flexing on a male mason wasp’s rear don’t deliver sperm. But these spines are among the few known genital structures that work as self-defense, ecologists Shinji Sugiura and Misaki Tsujii of Kobe University report. Male Anterhynchium gibbifrons mason wasps don’t have stingers, but when a tree frog gulps the male, lunch doesn’t go well. The wasp stabs its spines into the frog’s face and mouth — prompting the frog to vigorously spit out the wasp.
Read more: sciencenews.org/article/wasp-long-genital-spines-male-defense-survival
Video: Shinji Sugiura
Two thin spines shown flexing on a male mason wasp’s rear don’t deliver sperm. But these spines are among the few known genital structures that work as self-defense, ecologists Shinji Sugiura and Misaki Tsujii of Kobe University report. Male Anterhynchium gibbifrons mason wasps don’t have stingers, but when a tree frog gulps the male, lunch doesn’t go well. The wasp stabs its spines into the frog’s face and mouth — prompting the frog to vigorously spit out the wasp.
Read more: sciencenews.org/article/wasp-long-genital-spines-male-defense-survival
Video: Shinji Sugiura
