The sex lives of bluegills
In a post about trying to control the spread of Asian Carp up the Mississippi (or, as explosion calls it, “fish racism”) caution live frogs wonders “[W]hy does it seem that all the invasive species are Asian? Just to balance things out, I hope to god that somewhere in Asia some farmer is in his field cursing about the goddamn American beetles eating his crop.” Baby_Balrog notes that we did get them back with bluegills.
That gives Midnight Rambler a chance to show us just how great bluegills are:
I have a special place in my heart for bluegills. Not just because a large part of the research done on them has been done where I work, but because they have one of the coolest mating systems ever.
The first kind of male builds a nest and attracts a female like a normal guy should. BUT there are also ‘sneaker’ males. These guys are smaller, and suck at building nests so they wait around and when they see a female enter a nest they dart in and have their way with the female and her eggs before the guy who’s nest it is even has a chance.
But wait, there’s also a third type of male, the ‘satellite’ male. These guys grow up to look like females. The sneak into the nests of normal males, pretending to be female. While the nesting male thinks he’s awesome and has this big harem, there’s actually another male in there knocking up his women.
When I get frustrated with how complicated I think human relationships can be I just think of the bluegill and I feel better. (#)
