Love tricks in the animal world

Some people think that animals look cute and do not establish any complex social relationships, it seems that they will not play any tricks. The real situation is that in order to fight for the opposite sex, will make the side ways of many animals.

　　Men dressed as women

　　Australian giant squid is the world's largest squid species, this squid can use cells called "pigment layer" to instantly change the color and pattern of the skin to achieve a perfect blend with the environment.

　　In the winter, in order to attract females, male squid will give up their hidden colors and change their skin color to a brilliant one. In addition, because the male to female ratio of the Australian giant squid is 10:1, the males have to fight each other in a "tournament" for the right to mate. Those larger, stronger squid often end up winning the right to mate and place the female underneath them, carefully guarding them. And those small male squid, there is no opportunity to approach the female. No way to beat each other by strength, how to do? These cunning small people came up with a trick - male disguised as a woman.

　　Small size of the male squid will change the skin color, so that their skin pattern and color looks very similar to the female. In order to pretend to be more like the female squid, they will also imitate the female squid, the front of the body tentacles put away, swim to the large squid, to show him. The large male squid, who is not taking this lightly, believes that there is another "concubine" and lets down his guard and lets him swim underneath him.

　　You may say that even if the big squid is careless, the female squid underneath it is not willing, the small guys can't succeed. Unfortunately, for the small males of this deceptive behavior, female squid not only do not resent, but also seems to welcome.

　　Researchers have found that, in general, female squid will reject 70% of male suitors, including those who win in a fight, but they will only reject 35% of these "male impersonators. So, the smaller males have no trouble increasing their mating rate.

　　A tampered with gift

　　Many people know that female spiders, female praying mantis is the famous "black widow", they tend to eat their male partners after sex, to get protein. From an evolutionary point of view, the heroic sacrifice of the male is useful because it helps the female lay thousands of eggs, which facilitates the reproduction of the population. Other male insects do not sacrifice heroically, but will give some gifts to females in order to provide them with nourishment.

　　Male short-winged zoocrickets, however, use subterfuge. This small insect will also give a "wedding gift" during mating. This wedding gift is a sperm pod, the outer layer of which is made up of a gel-like substance and the inner layer contains semen.

　　The sweet taste and gooey texture of this gift is irresistible to the female. Naturally, the female will bend her body in excitement, tearing at the outer layer of this substance to enjoy this "gift of love".

　　However, the sperm pod is actually attached to the female's reproductive orifice, and when the female bends down to feed, she bites through the outer layer of the pod and the male's semen inside begins to slowly flow into the female's reproductive orifice, completing the fertilization process.

　　In addition, the researchers found that the male short-winged zoocrickets made their gifts. Firstly, the sperm pods they gave contained some substances that prevented the female from digesting the semen stuck inside after feeding on the pods; secondly, the proteins in the pods also manipulated the male reproductive system, making it less likely for female short-winged zoocrickets to mate with other males.

　　Ugly is relative

　　Ever heard of women who bring a not-so-good-looking bestie on a blind date to set them off as better looking? Male peacock fish also seem to know that ugly is relative, and they choose some ugly friends to set themselves off when courting.

　　There was an experiment where they divided a tank into two parts that could be interconnected, with a female and two male peacock fish placed on each side. However, the two male peacock fish in the right tank were dull and ugly.

　　Then, they placed another male peacock fish in the middle of the tank. Since the females preferred the more colorful males, and this peacock fish seemed to know this, it would spend 62% of its time around the female peacock fish at the right end, since its competitors were not as good looking.