Friday Fun: A Slippery Dick

[RainDog]

For all the amateur icthologists among us.

Halichoeres bivittatus is a species of ocean-dwelling fish in the family Labridae.

The slippery dick has three color phases. Adults have two dark lateral stripes, one running from snout through eye to caudal base and the other, less pronounced, on the lower side of body. A small bicolored spot at edge of gill cover within upper dark stripe (all phases).<2> Dark triangular corners on tail. Irregular light red bands on head and on caudal fin. Shades of green. Intermediates: Color vary greatly, from shades of light purple green to dark brown. Juveniles are usually white and have two dark stripes, but the lower (abdominal) stripe may be faint.<3> The Slippery Dick reaches about 30 centimetres

from the Wiki entry on "Slippery Dick."

[RainDog]

1. I guess I should have posted a picture of boobies.

I learned about the slippery dick from a very entertaining book- Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice for All Creation. If you want a good summer read that you can pick up and put down as needed, I recommend this one. It's about the evolutionary biology of sex.

I know most DU-ers aren't interested in talking or reading about sex, but you might want to stretch yourselves a little bit.

here's an example:

Dear Dr. Tatiana,

I'm a queen bee and I'm worried. All my lovers leave their genitals inside me and then drop dead. Is this normal?

answer: This is the way the world ends for your lovers -- with a bang, not a whimper. When a male bee reaches his climax, he explodes, his gentials ripped from his body with a loud snap. I can see why you find it unnerving... and it goes on from there.

sort of like national geographic with a sense of humor.

[redqueen]

2. Humor?

That is horrifying!

:o

[RainDog]

4. nature isn't pretty, young lady

well, sometimes it is, but the male bee does this so that no OTHER male bee can explode and leave HIS genitals. Live fast, die young, leave an exploded corpse.

[redqueen]

6. So... the queen mates with only one male?

Weird.

So... hives have one set of parents for all the bees there?

This is interesting...

[RainDog]

8. no. and it gets really complicated

b/c female bees are fertilized eggs and males unfertilized, and they have a sex-selecting gene. females evolved to remove the plug - lots of animals do this, but the honeybee, it seems, is the only one to explode.

the point being that male reproductive strategy is not to mate with as many females as possible, but to fertilize as many eggs as possible - which puts an evolutionary curb on male and female promiscuity... doesn't totally negate it, but is an evolutionary rationale for not being a Lothario.

oh, I found this one and thought you could find the funny it this-

http://www.drtatiana.com/critics/times_higher_education.shtml

Dr Tatiana calls into question that other general law of nature: that males can be promiscuous but females must remain chaste. From stick insects to chimpanzees (and according to my postbag, Homo sapiens too) females are hardly ever faithful. In species after species, rampant promiscuity is no malfunction. Rather, females and their offspring benefit from it. Female rabbits and Gunnison's prairie dogs both show higher rates of conception if they mate with several partners. The female sand lizard hatches out more eggs the more lovers she's had. The female slippery dick (a pale fish that lives on coral reefs) will have more of her eggs fertilised if she spawns with a gang than if she spawns with just one chap. Gang-bangs are common in the animal kingdom.

This is partly because lions, rats and many more require the vigorous stimulation of copulation with several partners before they can conceive, and the same urge may lie behind the common female sex fantasy of going solo with the Arsenal football team.

see? you're not the only one who likes Arsenal! :rofl:

(I was always an Anderlecht fan - but inherited that one from my ex. I attended football matches in Belgium where it's standing room only... except for the hooligans in the endfields and the rich folks. The British fans who came over for matches were scary sometimes.)

[redqueen]

10. !!!!!!!!

:spray:

Thank you! That's fantastic. :D



And re: the subject matter... I guess now we know why men try soooooooo hard to convince women that sex is BAD! Bad and bad and just WRONG and you are a BAD GIRL for even THINKING about that! :P

[Pierre.Suave]

12. I sure don't do that...

I spend all my energy convincing them it is great and they should come home with me and let me prove it...


Just kidding, if my Fiancee is reading this, then I spend all my energy convincing her it is great and we should do it more often and I love her more for wanting it...:P

[RainDog]

14. stick insect males have sex for ten weeks solid

you've got to hand it to those guys for stamina. they also do this so that no one else can get near his Twiggy.

[redqueen]

15. I approve of this method!

:woohoo:

[Pierre.Suave]

19. If I could

I would.

[TZ]

3. I'm really interested in that stuff...

Wonder if that fish is related to wrasse or Parrotfish that actually can CHANGE SEX as they mature.
Sexual behavior in animals (as a BIOLOGIST YOU PEVS) is quite fascinating to me.

[RainDog]

5. yes, it's a wrasse. don't know about changing sex tho

in which case, the name is all wrong.

[alarimer]

17. Labridae is the wrasse family.

Not sure if that particular species changes its sex or not.

Other species that change sex as they mature are groupers and snook. Groupers all start as females and then change to male. For snook it is the opposite.

And then there are the seahorse/pipefishes in which the males take over parental duties.

It is fascinating to me too.

[RainDog]

20. I didn't know that about snook

I used to eat snook all the time when I lived in Miami. tastes like chicken, only not.

[NV Whino]

7. What about the Slick Willie?

[RainDog]

9. sorry. this is not a sex thread.

it's about fish. and stuff.

[NV Whino]

11. oh damn

Here it is Friday and no sex thread.

[RainDog]

13. cause the rule is no sex threads

so we only talk about slippery dick FISH. or boobie birds. or we take polls.

[NV Whino]

21. Well Slick Willie isn't a sex thread...

unless you include Monica.

[Arugula Latte]

16. Just try and get your hands on that thing!

:)

[lost-in-nj]

18. Aren't they fun

everyday!!!!!

:rofl:


lost

[Robeson]

22. Dang, and here I was thinking you were talking about this dick...

...