Sticky

Did you know that stick-insect sex can go on for months?

So says evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson (author of Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice To All Creation) in a Philadelphia Inquirer article about a new drug for premature ejaculation:

The male stick insect plants himself on the female’s back and attaches himself there. Luckily for her, the male is about half her size. While clearly encumbered, she can still go about her business.

Upon reading this news, I decided to poke around google for more information about these sex-crazed stick insects.

My search ended a bit prematurely, but I did come across this assignment [MS Word doc] from a Montana State University biology class:

1. Dr Tatiana, the sex therapist for all creation received the following letter:

Dear Dr. Tatiana,

My name’s Twiggy, and I’m a stick insect. It’s with great embarrassment that I write to you while copulating, but my mate and I have been copulating for ten weeks already. I’m bored out of my skull, yet he shows no sign of flagging. He says its because he’s madly in love with me, but I think he is just plain mad. How can I get him to quit?

- Sick of Sex in India

Dr. Tatiana wrote back that the male stick insect was prolonging copulation for 10 weeks in order to prevent other males from having sex with this mate.

Describe an experiment to test this hypothesis.

I bet the college kids had fun with that one.