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November 10 2010
And the Prize for World’s Largest Testicles Goes to… the Bushcricket!
A cricket’s constant chirping may seem a bit ballsy, but just wait until you hear about their testicles. For at least one species of cricket, the tuberous bushcricket (Platycleis affinis), the testicles take up 14 percent of the insect’s body mass!
The Daily Mail made a stunning observation:
To put this into perspective, a man with the same proportions would have to carry testicles weighing as much as five bags of sugar each.
The discovery, made by a team led by Karim Vahed, was published in Biology Letters today. Vahed said in a press release that he was surprised by the finding:
“We couldn’t believe the size of these organs, they seemed to fill the entire abdomen. We are also interested in the reason why they are so large. An almost universal evolutionary rule appears to be that such variation in relative testes size is linked to female mating behaviour; testes tend to be larger in species where females are more promiscuous, as has been demonstrated in various species in fish, birds, insects and mammals.”
Traditionally scientists have seen that promiscuous partners lead to bigger balls through male competition. Each male wants to make more sperm than the rest so that his boys have the best chance of winning the race, either by sheer volume or through an ability to mate more often. This seems to be the case in these crickets, Vahed explained in a press release:
“It looks as though the testes may be that big simply to allow males to mate repeatedly without their sperm reserves being exhausted,” Dr Vahed said. “This strongly suggests that extra large testes in bushcrickets allow males to transfer relatively small ejaculates to a greater number of females. Males don’t put all their eggs (or rather sperm!) in one basket.”
The researchers discovered that each female bushcricket takes many mates, up to 23 in a two-month adult life. It seems this lifestyle has driven the males’ evolution of mega-testicles, giving them the stamina to keep up with these promiscuous ladies, explained The Guardian:
The theory, while speculative, has some evidence to support it. After mating with one female, tuberous bush crickets were ready to mate again within an hour, while other species with smaller testes took as long as five days to be ready.
Related content:
Discoblog: Toasty Testicles From Laptops Could Make for Less Fertile Nerds
Not Exactly Rocket Science: Squirrels masturbate to avoid sexually transmitted infections
Not Exactly Rocket Science: Gut bacteria change the sexual preferences of fruit flies
80beats: A “Sadistic” Spider’s Unusual Mating Habits Are Tough on the Female
DISCOVER: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Sex
Image: University of Derby
November 08 2010
Toasty Testicles From Laptops Could Make for Less Fertile Nerds
Being a computer nerd just keeps getting worse. Not only can being addicted to the interwebz make it hard to meet chicks, but now research is showing that a man’s relationship with his laptop computer can affect even his most intimate of areas.
The study, titled “Protection from scrotal hyperthermia in laptop computer users,” studied how laptop positioning affected testicle temperature. Participants were asked to sit with a laptop on their knees while the research team monitored the temperature of their scrotum (both the left and right sides).
The three positions they tried were: sitting with the laptop on the lap with legs together, the same position with a laptop pad under the computer, and sitting with legs spread 70 degrees apart. They found that the open legged position was the best at lowering testicle temp (a total of about half a degree on the left, and a little less on the right). As the authors explain in the study’s abstract:
Scrotal temperature increased significantly regardless of legs position or use of a lap pad. However, it was significantly lower in session 3 (1.41°C ± 0.66°C on the left and 1.47°C ± 0.62°C on the right) than in session 2 (2.18°C ± 0.69°C and 2.06°C ± 0.72°C) or session 1 (2.31°C ± 0.96°C and 2.56°C ± 0.91°C). A scrotal temperature elevation of 1°C was reached at 11 minutes in session 1, 14 minutes in session 2, and 28 minutes in session 3.
And while a few degrees doesn’t sound so dangerous, it’s actually enough to effect sperm quality (a rise of about two degree Fahrenheit can be an issue), especially given the length of time most people spend with their laptops these days. As the study author told Reuters:
“Millions and millions of men are using laptops now, especially those in the reproductive age range,” said Dr. Yefim Sheynkin, a urologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who led the new study. “Within 10 or 15 minutes their scrotal temperature is already above what we consider safe, but they don’t feel it,” he added.
Since the study only monitored temperature changes, not infertility or sperm quality, the authors can’t say for sure whether laptops will affect the ability to have children. But Sheynkin told Reuters that excessive laptopping could cause reproductive problems, though they aren’t likely to be permanent.
“I wouldn’t say that if someone starts to use laptops they will become infertile,” Sheynkin told Reuters Health. But frequent use might contribute to reproductive problems, he said, because “the scrotum doesn’t have time to cool down.”
Related content:
Discoblog: Warning All Competitive Male Cyclists: Less than 5% of Your Sperm May Be Normal
Discoblog: Answered: All Your Nagging Questions About Testicle Location
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Finally, a male contraceptive: behold the ball cozy!
80beats: Testicles Could Yield Stem Cells Without the Ethical Complications
80beats: New Contraceptive Wins Gates Money: Blasting Testicles w/Ultrasound
Image: Flickr/Ed Yourdon
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