A male parasite that lives within the Uterus of its female

[scubadog]

Never paid much attention to these we beauties, have seen them several times over the past two years...a green coloured ´Y ´shaped tongue that only ever appeared from beneath large rocks. Found their latin name, and with a quick search came up with this...

http://www.biologie.uni-osnabrueck.d...g/FR-home.html

[Dr Stevil]

hmmm.... inside the uterus? not sure exactly what Dr Hess means as I don't think these animals have anything that sophisticated, however... our Animal Reproduction lecturer taught us the dwarf males atach to the outside, not inside.
These have another weird thing about them, the larval stage are all female, when they settle on the sea floor they grow into adult females unless they land beside the mouth parts (proboscis) of a female in which case secretions from the female make the larva turn into a dwarf male!

The marine worm families show every kind of variation in sexual reproduction, our old department head was a bit of an expert in these so we got it rammed down our throats

BTW there's a form of Tick which produces around 200 eggs and these remain inside the mothers body, 199 of them are female, one is male, they all hatch inside the mother, the males fertilises all his sisters then dies without ever having been born and the sisters are born into the ouside world pregnant!

Ecky thump! It's been along while since I've done one of these Michael Caine style posts

[scubadog]

hmmm.... inside the uterus? not sure exactly what Dr Hess means as I don't think these animals have anything that sophisticated, however... our Animal Reproduction lecturer taught us the dwarf males atach to the outside, not inside....

Steve... it is possible for a dwarf male to attach themselves to the outside of a female, as with the Angler fish....would it not stand to reason that, another species may be able to supply the oppposite ?