The animate being realm is full of deterrent example that illustrate just how hard the mating game can be . But there is perhaps no better example of this than the distaff butterfly stroke , which has evolved an entirely clear-cut organ to protect her own interests — in reply to a likewise selfish evolution by the males , course .
Female butterfly have notoriously complex and convoluted reproductive systems , which include a relatively mysterious organ known as the bursa copulatrix . Recent researchby University of Pittsburgh graduate scholar Melissa Plakke helped to illuminate what ’s going on in there , but to understand it you first have to interpret the rough plot of scheme that is butterfly stroke sex .
To facilitate further their own lines , male butterflies — like many other insect — have develop to deliver their spermatozoon inside a parcel call a spermatophore . Spermatophores contain protein to aid improve their sperm ’s chance by giving spermatozoon a speed boost , or by plug a female ’s vagina so other males ca n’t copulate with her .
This could potentially be forged news show for the female , who would like to give herself as many chance as potential to reproduce and pass onhergenes — which is why female butterflies have evolve the power to tear down those proteins and use them to keep their own bodies and eggs . Because this is an evolutionary implements of war race of sort , the outer shell of the male person ’s spermatophore is surprisingly tough .
This back and forth is where the bursa copulatrix hail in . Scientists initially intend the organ might be " digesting " the tough spermatophore shell and trapping useful protein , but they were n’t sure . Plakke ’s research studied the interior of the bursa copulatrix in cabbage white butterflies , using specimen that were sexually active and some that were n’t . She and her team found nine different enzymes in the bursa that stop down protein — meaning the bursa copulatrix is " use up " the male person ’s protein like a 2nd stomach . Because adult butterflies do n’t actually consume other proteins , this Hammond organ has been compared to the section of the cat gut responsible for digesting protein — but it ’s just one - twentieth of the size , which think of the Brusa copulatrix is just as , if not more , digestively potent .
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