The 'little boy' ruined the reproductive ability of seed beetles

US scientists have demonstrated the correctness of the hypothesis that possessing a short penis can destroy the male reproductive ability, at least in the seed bug.

New discovery of fertility of seed beetles

Male individuals of the seed beetle possess a strange twisted coil penis, with a size equal to 70% of the body length or 7mm.

Male seed beetles possess a penis as long as 70% of body size and relatively special.(Photo: Corbis)

Through experiments, experts from the University of St Andrews (USA) discovered, shortening the penis of seed beetles affected the chance of having their children . Everything looks clear, but the team insists, their results are not evident, because seed bugs are endowed with a relatively special " little boy ."

In most species, penile removal will lead to catastrophic loss of sexual function , but in other seed beetles. This creature's "little boy" is a tube-like structure, without nerves, muscles and blood vessels. It also seems to be longer than the capacity of the genitalia of female beetles.

According to research reports, experts used to shorten the penis of the seed beetle and use X-ray techniques to create high-resolution 3D models of bugs doing " that ". They discovered that the shorter the penis was, the less successful the male beetle was in having a baby.

In particular, males were cut off by 5% of the " small " length, with significantly fewer children than those of intact male genital organs in the same species. Being amputated 30% of the "little boy" length means that seed beetles will reduce mating time by half.

The research team noted that owning a long penis is not a rare thing in the world of bugs and aphids. This feature also appears in many other insect groups. In addition, except for the effect on fertility, the short cut "little boy" did not cause any other harm to seed beetles.