NATURE

Glad you ditched the anal fork, Golden Tortoise Beetle

(Thanks to Bob Ellison)

Comments

[markhh]

So, they lose the fork to do some spooning?

[ligirl]

must've wrecked'um

[Theresa]

Gee, he looks cool.

[Layzeeboy]

protect themselves by sticking old skin and faecal matter to their anal forks – otherwise known as faecal parasols – to form a shield?

Would this work in prison?

[Just Some Guy]

You can get a new one in the Congressional cafeteria.

[nursecindy]

If I had to pick two words that should never be next to each other in the same sentence they would be anal and fork.

[Cheesewiz]

"More than 30 years ago, golden tortoise beetles became the first known insect species with the ability to rapidly change colour during copulation."

Well, yeah.

[Meanie the Blue]

Just the kind of erudite picture caption that Scientific American is famous for: "Here's two of them f*cking".

I mean, WT....?

[Loudmouth]

Do you also use an anal fork to eat $h!+ and die?

[Omniskeptic]

I'm guessing that the beetles have been at it for more than 30 years, and that the author meant it took us until then to notice.

I don't have my copy of the DSM 4 handy -- Cindy, what's the diagnostic code for this kind of deviance? People who watch beetles f*ck, that is.