BUG SEX (IT'S COMPLICATED)
CBC 'NATURE 'OF THINGS'
BUG SEX - SYNOPSIS
There are 10 quintillion bugs on earth and they all want to have sex — it is their evolutionary imperative, if they want their bloodlines and species to survive. The result is a wild world of reproduction going on everywhere, while most of us remain completely unaware of this universal bug bacchanalia. BUG SEX takes us into that world of competition, sexual conflict, a lot of carnage, and even some pleasure. We’ll visit scientists from around the world who have been peering into these tiny bug-worlds to watch them mate and chronicle the bizarre behaviors and genitalia of everything from spiders to crickets to fruit flies. We’ll see males get devoured by their mates right after they’ve dropped off their sperm, and other males who have developed ways of “signalling” females, telling them they’re there for sex and not dinner. We’ll also see cavalcade of the weirdest penises in the animal kingdom – and we’ll explain why they evolved the way they did.
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The story of Bug Sex has a lot to teach us about evolution and how life gets propagated on earth. Humans tend to think of reproduction as a cooperative effort. But among bugs, sex can be cutthroat — literally. The one who manages to pass the most genes forward, for one more generation, wins!