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| Morocco |
It had been an exceptionally busy night, spent in
the company of a virgin.
He had gone in search of a mate yesterday evening,
working hard to attract female attention by rubbing his wings together – or
stridulating if you want to get technical.
He rejected several plump females who responded to
his calls, for the wily Armoured Ground Cricket knew that virgin crickets were
slender little beauties.
Why a preference for a virgin? Because a first
timer will mate once and lay her eggs, whereas the old pros mate and lay their
eggs randomly. By sticking to the svelte virgins, he knew that a higher
proportion of the offspring would be his.
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| Ouzoud, Morocco |
When a slim young thing eventually turned up last night,
he stridulated ardently and offered her his nuptial gift of a food sack
together with his sperm pouch. She proved receptive and he carefully attached
the spermatophore close to her genital opening.
Job done.
However, having lost around 20% of his body
weight, he needed to replenish his energy levels. It was sunrise.
He staggered
off in search of a meal. His appetite was eclectic, but he was partial to bird
nestlings and headed across the desert scrub towards some likely looking
shrubs.
In his weakened state, progress was slow, making
him vulnerable. At almost 3 inches long, detection by predators was difficult
to avoid.
When the lizard attacked and grabbed him, the
cricket mobilised his defences and autohaemorrhaged, squirting pale green,
acrid smelling blood into the lizard’s face. The predator immediately dropped
him and scurried off in disgust.
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| Armoured Ground Cricket, Morocco |
When the humans started to show an interest in
him, he watched and waited. He didn’t have it in him to autohaemorrage again,
but if that finger moved any closer he would unleash his final defence
mechanism and vomit up his last meal all over it.
You'd think that human would have the decency to leave a chap to sleep off his night of passion!
ReplyDeleteWell, quite! But I needed my husband to place his finger there for the sake of perspective for my photo... he was a big critter! (The cricket - not the husband.)
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