Lizard

There didn't seem to be any way to reply to the E/C Booklist thread, so I've had to add a new thread for this.

I heartily recommend the book, "Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation" to anyone who wants to know more about the mating behavior in insects and birds and its possible evolutionary origins.

I doubt that there is anyone who can read this book, written with wit and humor by a brilliant British evolutionary biologist whose name escapes me at the moment, and still think life on earth is a peaceable kingdom whose doings have been devised by any kind of benevolent intelligent designer. On the contrary, the preposterous, ridiculous and often cruel methods various species have evolved to perpetuate themselves seem incredibly arbitrary and, well, just plain wasteful and stupid.

After the author was interviewed in NPR, I had to wait a couple of months on the library request list to obtain the one copy our library system had (There were 17 people ahead of me!), but the wait was worth it. To order it:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...ternetinfidels

{Rufus: Edited for hard link to product.}

Monkey

My favorite is the bed bug that, rather than using copulation, just bypasses the whole sex thing and bust a hole in the side of the fe-male.

Ref.

Stutt, A., Siva-Jothy, M. Traumantic insemination and sexual conflict in the bed bug Cimex lectularius. Available WWW: http://www.csun.edu/~dgray/BE528/bedbugs.pdf

RufusAtticus

Don't worry, I have Dr. T's book and it will make it onto the larger list. The part about dolphin blowhole sex was disturbing.