Some anglerfishes, like those of the Ceratioid group (Ceratiidae, or sea devils), employ an unusual mating method. Because individuals are presumably locally rare and encounters doubly so, finding a mate is problematic. When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were female. These individuals were a few centimetres in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turned out that these "parasites" were highly reduced male ceratioids.
At birth, male ceratioids are already equipped with extremely well-developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. The male ceratioid lives solely to find and mate with a female. They are significantly smaller than a female angler fish, and may have trouble finding food in the deep sea. Furthermore, the growth of the alimentary canals of some males becomes stunted, preventing them from feeding. These features necessitate his quickly finding a female anglerfish to prevent death. The sensitive olfactory organs help the male to detect the pheromones that signal the proximity of a female anglerfish. When he finds a female, he bites into her skin, and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male then slowly atrophies, first losing his digestive organs, then his brain, heart, and eyes, and ends as nothing more than a pair of gonads, which release sperm in response to hormones in the female's bloodstream indicating egg release. This extreme sexual dimorphism ensures that, when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available. Multiple males can be incorporated into a single female.
I love these guys. So much. I am fascinated by the way it is assimilated into the females body. _________________ "If you look deeply emough into any person's soul, you can see the emu within them struggling to get out. Actually, most people don't have emus in their soul. Just me." - Invisible Dave, Lady of Emus
Joined: Oct 31, 2011 Posts: 531 Location: North of North
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:24 pm Post subject:
Hank Green wrote a song about the male anglerfish. I don't like it personally, as it puts forward the idea that you can't feel suffering if you've never felt joy, and thing like that, which I don't agree with. But you might find it interesting.
That's both morbidly distressing and pretty cool. For the sake of survival, the male of the species has become a parasite... I know some human males who did that by choice.
Joined: Aug 27, 2010 Posts: 4611 Location: mid atlantic coast usa
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 12:08 pm Post subject:
RainShadow wrote:
That's both morbidly distressing and pretty cool. For the sake of survival, the male of the species has become a parasite... I know some human males who did that by choice.
That aint so bad.
When female preying mantis mate with the much smaller males they cut the male's head off and pop it thier mouths while mating. This makes the males loose inhibition and become even more passionate!
And then when the act is done the female chows down on the rest of the male. The protien comes in handy when gestating those eggs.
This makes me glad I wasn't born an anglerfish. Though I'm sure those little guys are as happy as can be latching on to a big momma and getting a free ride!
