INSECT KINGDOM — Life is brutal and short in the worlds inhabited by animals and insects. Predators, weather conditions, pollution, human capriciousness, they can all influence how long and pleasant, or short and painful, an already brief life can be. Even the butterfly, with its delicate beauty and whimsical flight patterns, can suffer ill effects and turn from their normally docile selves into sex crazed maniacs.Such is the case with the common eggfly Hypolimnas bolina.
According to evolutionary biologist Sylvain Charlat of University College London, this delicate creature, found flittering about in places as exotic as Madagascar, Australia, Asia, and Easter Island, is experiencing a traumatic change in its erotic rituals. A change that is leaving its males exhausted and weak, while its females remain insatiable and constantly on the look out for more and more boy butterfly juice.
The cause appears to be a bacteria that kills males, but turns females into fierce and ever-horny mating machines.
The bacteria, known as Wolbachia, is very common in the insect world, appearing in more than one-fifth of all species. Its effects are fascinating, capable of killing males — or turning them into females — as well as inspiring constant lust in females, as well as sparking parthenogenesis, meaning that females can reproduce without benefit of a male’s participation.
Scientists have been able to watch the bacteria take hold of Pacific Island and Southeast Asian butterfly populations and move from mother to son, causing the destruction of many males while still in the egg stage. Interestingly enough, each island’s butterflies respond differently to Wolbachia, but all are finding themselves with a gender ratio imbalance, with females outnumbering males 100:1 in some areas.
During the past three years, the sex ratios of 20 areas have experienced profound changes. Australia, Vietnam, Borneo, New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Tahiti have all seen their butterfly friends become more girlish and less potent, regardless of whether they lives near airports or in hard-to-reach rural areas.
Charlat and his fellow researchers have published their findings in the February 6th issue of Current Biology journal, noting that instead of the predominantly female population swearing off sex with males, perhaps due to a lack of interest in competing for their favors, the girl butterflies were even more determined to get their groove on with the greatly outnumbered boy butterflies.
While that may sound like a hot premise for a butterfly porn video, Charlat insists that the reality is more grim. “Greater numbers of female partners leads to fatigue in males. They start producing smaller sperm packages. Unfortunately, the female butterflies instinctively know that the packages are smaller and that their chances of having been sufficiently impregnated after mating are lower than usual. This just makes them more rampant.”
Even in the butterfly kingdom, size apparently counts.
Charlat frets that as it is with the butterflies, so it might become with the rest of the insect world. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and the bacteria Wolbachia will migrate to the cockroach next, with similar results.
