What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives
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0:02 - 0:07So, people are more afraid of insects
than they are of dying. -
0:07 - 0:09(Laughter)
-
0:09 - 0:13At least, according to a 1973
"Book of Lists" survey -
0:13 - 0:20which preceded all those online best,
worst, funniest lists that you see today. -
0:20 - 0:24Only heights and public speaking
-
0:24 - 0:27exceeded the six-legged
as sources of fear. -
0:28 - 0:31And I suspect if you had put
spiders in there, -
0:31 - 0:36the combinations of insects and spiders
would have just topped the chart. -
0:37 - 0:39Now, I am not one of those people.
-
0:39 - 0:41I really love insects.
-
0:41 - 0:45I think they're interesting and beautiful,
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0:45 - 0:47and sometimes even cute.
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0:47 - 0:48(Laughter)
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0:48 - 0:49And I'm not alone.
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0:50 - 0:53For centuries, some
of the greatest minds in science, -
0:53 - 0:56from Charles Darwin to E.O. Wilson,
-
0:56 - 1:02have drawn inspiration from studying
some of the smallest minds on Earth. -
1:03 - 1:04Well, why is that?
-
1:04 - 1:07What is that keeps us
coming back to insects? -
1:08 - 1:13Some of it, of course, is just the sheer
magnitude of almost everything about them. -
1:13 - 1:16They're more numerous
than any other kind of animal. -
1:16 - 1:19We don't even know how many species
of insects there are, -
1:19 - 1:21because new ones
are being discovered all the time. -
1:21 - 1:25There are at least a million,
maybe as many as 10 million. -
1:25 - 1:29This means that you could have
an insect-of-the-month calendar -
1:30 - 1:33and not have to reuse a species
for over 80,000 years. -
1:34 - 1:36(Laughter)
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1:36 - 1:38Take that, pandas and kittens!
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1:38 - 1:40(Laughter)
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1:41 - 1:44More seriously, insects are essential.
-
1:44 - 1:45We need them.
-
1:45 - 1:49It's been estimated
that 1 out of every 3 bites of food -
1:49 - 1:52is made possible by a pollinator.
-
1:53 - 1:56Scientist use insects to make fundamental
discoveries -
1:56 - 1:59about everything from the structure
of our nervous systems -
1:59 - 2:01to how our genes and DNA work.
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2:02 - 2:04But what I love most about insects
-
2:04 - 2:07is what they can tell us
about our own behavior. -
2:08 - 2:11Insects seem like they do
everything that people do. -
2:11 - 2:14They meet, they mate,
they fight, they break up. -
2:15 - 2:19And they do so with what looks
like love or animosity. -
2:20 - 2:25But what drives their behaviors is really
different than what drives our own, -
2:25 - 2:27and that difference
can be really illuminating. -
2:28 - 2:30There's nowhere where that's more true
-
2:30 - 2:34than when it comes to one
of our most consuming interests -- sex. -
2:34 - 2:37Now, I will maintain.
and I think I can defend, -
2:37 - 2:39what may seem like a surprising statement.
-
2:41 - 2:44I think sex in insects is more
interesting than sex in people. -
2:44 - 2:46(Laughter)
-
2:46 - 2:49And the wild variety that we see
-
2:49 - 2:52makes us challenge
some of our own assumptions -
2:52 - 2:55about what it means to be male and female.
-
2:56 - 2:57Of course, to start with,
-
2:57 - 3:00a lot of insects don't need
to have sex at all to reproduce. -
3:00 - 3:05Female aphids can make little, tiny clones
of themselves without ever mating. -
3:05 - 3:07Virgin birth, right there.
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3:07 - 3:08On your rose bushes.
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3:08 - 3:11(Laughter)
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3:11 - 3:13When they do have sex,
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3:13 - 3:16even their sperm is more
interesting than human sperm. -
3:16 - 3:19There are some kinds of fruit flies
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3:19 - 3:22whose sperm is longer
than the male's own body. -
3:22 - 3:26And that's important because the males
use their sperm to compete. -
3:27 - 3:31Now, male insects do compete with weapons,
like the horns on these beetles. -
3:32 - 3:36But they also compete
after mating with their sperm. -
3:37 - 3:42Dragonflies and damselflies have penises
that look kind of like Swiss Army knives -
3:42 - 3:44with all of the attachments pulled out.
-
3:44 - 3:46(Laughter)
-
3:46 - 3:50They use these formidable devices
like scoops, -
3:50 - 3:55to remove the sperm from previous males
that the female has mated with. -
3:55 - 3:57(Laughter)
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3:57 - 4:00So, what can we learn from this?
-
4:00 - 4:05(Laughter)
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4:05 - 4:10All right, it is not a lesson in the sense
of us imitating them -
4:10 - 4:14or of them setting
an example for us to follow. -
4:14 - 4:17Which, given this,
is probably just as well. -
4:17 - 4:21And also, did I mention sexual cannibalism
is rampant among insects? -
4:21 - 4:23So, no, that's not the point.
-
4:23 - 4:25But what I think insects do,
-
4:25 - 4:31is break a lot of the rules
that we humans have about the sex roles. -
4:31 - 4:37So, people have this idea that nature
dictates kind of a 1950s sitcom version -
4:37 - 4:39of what males and females are like.
-
4:39 - 4:42So that males are always
supposed to be dominant and aggressive, -
4:42 - 4:44and females are passive and coy.
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4:44 - 4:46But that's just not the case.
-
4:47 - 4:49So for example, take katydids,
-
4:49 - 4:52which are relatives of crickets
and grasshoppers. -
4:52 - 4:55The males are very picky
about who they mate with, -
4:55 - 4:58because they not only transfer
sperm during mating, -
4:58 - 5:03they also give the female
something called a nuptial gift. -
5:03 - 5:06You can see two katydids
mating in these photos. -
5:06 - 5:09In both panels,
the male's the one on the right, -
5:09 - 5:12and that sword-like appendage
is the female's egg-laying organ. -
5:13 - 5:16The white blob is the sperm,
-
5:16 - 5:19the green blob is the nuptial gift,
-
5:19 - 5:22and the male manufactures
this from his own body -
5:22 - 5:25and it's extremely costly to produce.
-
5:25 - 5:27It can weigh up to a third
of his body mass. -
5:28 - 5:31I will now pause for a moment
and let you think about -
5:31 - 5:35what it would be like if human men,
every time they had sex, -
5:35 - 5:41had to produce something
that weighed 50, 60, 70 pounds. -
5:41 - 5:44(Laughter)
-
5:44 - 5:48Okay, they would not be able
to do that very often. -
5:48 - 5:49(Laughter)
-
5:49 - 5:52And indeed, neither can the katydids.
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5:52 - 5:54And so what that means
-
5:54 - 5:58is the katydid males are very choosy
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5:58 - 6:01about who they offer
these nuptial gifts to. -
6:01 - 6:03Now, the gift is very nutritious,
-
6:03 - 6:06and the female eats it
during and after mating. -
6:06 - 6:08So, the bigger it is,
the better off the male is, -
6:08 - 6:10because that means more time for his sperm
-
6:10 - 6:13to drain into her body
and fertilize her eggs. -
6:14 - 6:18But it also means that the males
are very passive about mating, -
6:18 - 6:21whereas the females
are extremely aggressive and competitive, -
6:21 - 6:26in an attempt to get as many of these
nutritious nuptial gifts as they can. -
6:26 - 6:30So, it's not exactly
a stereotypical set of rules. -
6:31 - 6:33Even more generally though,
-
6:33 - 6:38males are actually not all that important
in the lives of a lot of insects. -
6:38 - 6:42In the social insects --
the bees and wasps and ants -- -
6:42 - 6:45the individuals that you see every day --
-
6:45 - 6:47the ants going back and forth
to your sugar bowl, -
6:47 - 6:50the honey bees that are flitting
from flower to flower -- -
6:50 - 6:53all of those are always female.
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6:53 - 6:58People have had a hard time getting
their head around that idea for millennia. -
6:58 - 7:03The ancient Greeks knew that there was
a class of bees, the drones, -
7:03 - 7:05that are larger than the workers,
-
7:05 - 7:08although they disapproved
of the drones' laziness -
7:08 - 7:11because they could see that
the drones just hang around the hive -
7:11 - 7:12until the mating flight --
-
7:12 - 7:14they're the males.
-
7:14 - 7:16They hang around until the mating flight,
-
7:16 - 7:18but they don't participate
in gathering nectar or pollen. -
7:18 - 7:21The Greeks couldn't figure out
the drones' sex, -
7:21 - 7:25and part of the confusion was that they
were aware of the stinging ability of bees -
7:25 - 7:28but they found it difficult to believe
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7:28 - 7:31that any animals that bore such a weapon
could possibly be a female. -
7:32 - 7:35Aristotle tried to get involved as well.
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7:35 - 7:39He suggested, "OK, if the stinging
individuals are going to be the males ..." -
7:39 - 7:42Then he got confused,
because that would have meant -
7:42 - 7:45the males were also taking care
of the young in a colony, -
7:45 - 7:49and he seemed to think
that would be completely impossible. -
7:49 - 7:52He then concluded that maybe
bees had the organs of both sexes -
7:52 - 7:53in the same individual,
-
7:53 - 7:56which is not that far-fetched,
some animals do that, -
7:56 - 7:58but he never really
did get it figured out. -
7:59 - 8:03And you know, even today,
my students, for instance, -
8:03 - 8:07call every animal they see,
including insects, a male. -
8:08 - 8:11And when I tell them
that the ferocious army-ant soldiers -
8:11 - 8:14with their giant jaws,
used to defend the colony, -
8:14 - 8:17are all always female,
-
8:17 - 8:20they seem to not quite believe me.
-
8:20 - 8:21(Laughter)
-
8:21 - 8:26And certainly all of the movies --
Antz, Bee Movie -- -
8:26 - 8:32portray the main character
in the social insects as being male. -
8:33 - 8:35Well, what difference does this make?
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8:35 - 8:36These are movies. They're fiction.
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8:36 - 8:38They have talking animals in them.
-
8:38 - 8:42What difference does it make
if they talk like Jerry Seinfeld? -
8:42 - 8:44I think it does matter,
-
8:44 - 8:47and it's a problem that actually
is part of a much deeper one -
8:47 - 8:51that has implications
for medicine and health -
8:51 - 8:54and a lot of other aspects of our lives.
-
8:54 - 8:57You all know that scientists
use what we call model systems, -
8:57 - 9:00which are creatures --
white rats or fruit flies -- -
9:00 - 9:05that are kind of stand-ins
for all other animals, including people. -
9:05 - 9:08And the idea is
that what's true for a person -
9:08 - 9:10will also be true for the white rat.
-
9:10 - 9:13And by and large,
that turns out to be the case. -
9:13 - 9:17But you can take the idea
of a model system too far. -
9:18 - 9:20And what I think we've done,
-
9:20 - 9:26is use males, in any species,
as though they are the model system. -
9:26 - 9:27The norm.
-
9:27 - 9:29The way things are supposed to be.
-
9:30 - 9:33And females as a kind of variant --
-
9:33 - 9:36something special that you only study
after you get the basics down. -
9:38 - 9:40And so, back to the insects.
-
9:41 - 9:42I think what that means
-
9:42 - 9:45is that people just couldn't see
what was in front of them. -
9:45 - 9:51Because they assumed that the world's
stage was largely occupied by male players -
9:51 - 9:55and females would only have
minor, walk-on roles. -
9:56 - 10:01But when we do that, we really miss out
on a lot of what nature is like. -
10:02 - 10:09And we can also miss out on the way
natural, living things, including people, -
10:09 - 10:10can vary.
-
10:10 - 10:15And I think that's why we've used males
as models in a lot of medical research, -
10:15 - 10:17something that we know now to be a problem
-
10:17 - 10:22if we want the results to apply
to both men and women. -
10:23 - 10:25Well, the last thing
I really love about insects -
10:25 - 10:29is something that a lot of people
find unnerving about them. -
10:29 - 10:30They have little, tiny brains
-
10:30 - 10:34with very little cognitive ability,
the way we normally think of it. -
10:34 - 10:39They have complicated behavior,
but they lack complicated brains. -
10:40 - 10:45And so, we can't just think of them
as though they're little people -
10:45 - 10:49because they don't do things
the way that we do. -
10:49 - 10:53I really love that it's difficult
to anthropomorphize insects, -
10:53 - 10:56to look at them and just think of them
like they're little people -
10:56 - 10:58in exoskeletons, with six legs.
-
10:59 - 11:00(Laughter)
-
11:00 - 11:04Instead, you really have to accept them
on their own terms, -
11:04 - 11:09because insects make us question
what's normal and what's natural. -
11:10 - 11:14Now, you know, people write fiction
and talk about parallel universes. -
11:14 - 11:17They speculate about the supernatural,
-
11:18 - 11:21maybe the spirits of the departed
walking among us. -
11:23 - 11:26The allure of another world
-
11:26 - 11:32is something that people say is part of
why they want to dabble in the paranormal. -
11:32 - 11:35But as far as I'm concerned,
-
11:35 - 11:37who needs to be able to see dead people,
-
11:37 - 11:39when you can see live insects?
-
11:39 - 11:40Thank you.
-
11:40 - 11:45(Applause)
- Title:
- What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives
- Speaker:
- Marlene Zuk
- Description:
-
Marlene Zuk delightedly, determinedly studies insects. In this enlightening, funny talk, she shares just some of the ways that they are truly astonishing — not least for the creative ways they have sex.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 11:58
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives | ||
Cynthia Betubiza edited English subtitles for What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives | ||
Krystian Aparta approved English subtitles for What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives | ||
Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for What we learn from insects’ kinky sex lives |