Consider yourself lucky that your sex life is far more fun and exciting in comparison to what you'll learn about a flatworm called Macrostomum hystrix that happens to have a bizarre reproductive ritual worthy of sci-fi horror films.
In an report by BGR, every M. hystrix worm is a hermaphrodite, or having both male and female reproductive system. If this makes reproduction sound easy, think again. When two of these worms find a potential mate, they try stabbing each other with their needle-like penises called a "stylet" in a kind of fencing match. The winner gets to assume the role of male and the loser becomes the female who will give birth to their offspring.
In the course that no mate is available, this species of flatworm always have the option to self-inseminate. The Scientist reports that the M. hystrix is the only animal with the distinct behavior of using their needle-like penis to inseminate themselves by injecting sperm into their head, according to a paper recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
For anatomical reasons, the worms have no choice, but to put their sperm in their head because it is easy for their penis to reach. The sperm travels from the injection site-usually in the mid-body or tail region-to the female sex organs near the head. Moreover, the female sex organ is located near the head, making insemination less tedious.
Daily Mail reports that Biologists from the University of Basel in Switzerland wrote that the inability to find a mate is disastrous to the prospects of most animals, but not necessarily to hermaphrodites because they make both eggs and sperm, producing some inbred offspring may be preferable to producing none at all.
Researchers also said that other worm species reproduced normally could also self-reproduce if left without a mate for days.
