Cockroaches Are Skipping Sugar to Get More Sex From Mutant Population

Cockroaches Are Skipping Sugar to Get More Sex From Mutant Population

I always love a post where I can re-use my (so far) lone roach photo!

(Link): Cockroaches are evolving to prefer low-sugar diets. That could be bad news for humans

Pest control practices will have to evolve just as fast to kill the much-hated insects

July 3, 2022
By PAMELA APPEA

 Apparently, humans aren’t the only animals going keto. The German cockroach (Blattella germanica), one of the most common pests in the world, is evolving to have a glucose-free diet.

Unlike many humans, it’s not because they’re suddenly watching their figure; rather, German cockroaches have inadvertently outwitted human pest control tactics by evolving to dislike sugar, specifically glucose.

That could have huge implications for the population of cockroaches worldwide, which is of particular concern given their propensity to spread bacteria and disease.

…  Dr. Ayako Wada-Katsumata and a team of entomology researchers found evidence of significant changes involving sugar-averse German cockroaches and mating habits.

One of the World’s Deadliest Spiders Evolved Its Killer Venom in Hunt For Sex

One of the World’s Deadliest Spiders Evolved Its Killer Venom in Hunt For Sex

 

(Link): One of the World’s Deadliest Spiders Evolved Its Killer Venom in Hunt For Sex 

Excerpts:

 

BY HANNAH OSBORNE ON 9/21/20 

 

One of the world’s most deadly spiders may have developed its extremely toxic venom as a way of protecting itself while on its annual sex march.

The venom of Australian funnel-web spiders contains delta-hexatoxins, which are the peptides that makes the venom dangerous for humans and primates. There have been 13 recorded deaths, though none since antivenoms became available in the 1980s. It is estimated 30 to 40 people are bitten every year.

Lonely George the Tree Snail Dies in 2019 – Researchers Could Not Find Him a Wife

Lonely George the Tree Snail Dies in 2019 – Researchers Could Not Find Him a Wife

Rest in Peace, George the snail.

(I wrote of another single snail previously here: (Link): Love Is Patient: Rare Snail Finally Meets Mate Willing to Accept His Differences )

Here’s the new, sad snail story.

(Link): Lonely George the Tree Snail Dies in 2019 – Researchers Could Not Find Him a Wife

Excerpts:

by C. Wilcox

One famous snail’s death highlights the plight faced by diverse Hawaiian snails, of which there were once hundreds of species.

THE WORLD’S LONELIEST snail is no more.

George, a Hawaiian tree snail—and the last known member of the speciesAchatinella apexfulva—died on New Year’s Day. He was 14, which is quite old for a snail of his kind.

George was born in a captive breeding facility at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in the early 2000s, and soon after, the rest of his kin died. That’s when he got his name—after Lonesome George, the Pinta Island tortoise who was also the last of his kind.

Female Cockroaches Form Squads to Block Male Mating Attempts

Female Cockroaches Form Squads to Block Male Mating Attempts

(Link): Female cockroaches form squads to block male mating attempts

By Hannah Sparks

Ladies have to look out for each other. Even roaches know that.

A new study of Pacific beetle cockroaches in the journal Ethology revealed some surprising feminist tendencies among the insects: In mixed-sex groups, females cluster together to stave off unwanted mating advances from males.

Love Is Patient: Rare Snail Finally Meets Mate Willing to Accept His Differences by K. Bender

Love Is Patient: Rare Snail Finally Meets Mate Willing to Accept His Differences

I think there may be a lesson in here somewhere for humans.

(Link): Love Is Patient: Rare Snail Finally Meets Mate Willing to Accept His Differences

Excerpts:

by K Bender, Nov 11, 2016

To the human eye, Jeremy doesn’t look that different from most snails, but to other snails he is rather unique.

Due to a genetic mutation, Jeremy’s shell swirls counterclockwise and his sex organs are located on the left side of his head, the opposite arrangement of most snails. According to (Link): NPR, this rare “lefty” look has made it nearly impossible for Jeremy to find a mate, because his sex organs don’t align with those of other snails.

Luckily, Jeremy found a friend in Angus Davison of the University of Nottingham, who is working with a team to find out what gene creates this one in 100,000 anomaly. One of the best ways to do this is to study Jeremy’s offspring. But first the snail has to have offspring, which requires another counterclockwise snail. 

To find a mate for the lovelorn snail, Davison asked the public for help on Twitter, attaching the hashtag #snaillove to his plea.