On Semelparity (One and Done)

                                                                         Ant Head (Closeup)

One And Done

The reproductive style of breeding only once and then dying is called “semelparity.” Examples: Pacific salmon, Monarch butterflies. The only mammal that dies after reproducing is the Australian marsupial mouse, who weighs one to three ounces and looks like a rat, but is not a rodent. After breeding the male goes into a state of senility, his thick fur falls out and bald patches appear. He is usually dead by the time the female gives birth to 3-5 young a month later.

 

Bamboos Go One and Done

At least 137 species of bamboo are semelparous. Each plant in a huge bamboo forest may live more than a century before reproducing. Then somebody gives the sign, and, in an awesome display of semelparity, all the plants flower at once, drop their seeds, and die.

 

Death After Breeding in the Insect World

Black widow spiders finish off the act of mating by eating the male copulator. How was it for you, was it (GLOMP). Male honey bees who are lucky enough to mate with the queen in flight die straightaway—the genitalia literally explode. Wow, that was great sex, that was (KA-BOOM). The male praying mantis often has his head bitten off (CHUNK) in the act of copulation, but he goes chugging on, headless, until he gets his business done. Hmm, this might be a whole lot more fun if I still had a head.

[Excerpted from book by U.R. Bowie, Here We Be. Where Be We?]

                                                           Contented Tree Frog