Have you ever pretended to be too tired to have sex with your partner? Apparently, animals do that too. Animals usually pretend to be dead to avoid being killed or eaten by predators. Well, some even play dead to reject male suitors.
According to New Scientist, female dragonflies dodge pesky suitors by faking death. Every time an unwanted male companion approaches females, they plunge to the ground.
Researchers at the Ecological Society of America conducted a study to determine the real reasons behind this behavior. They observed 31 dragonflies. Twenty-seven dragonflies played dead to avoid males. Six dragonflies weren’t lucky because their suitors found them desirable despite the fact they were “dead.”
Rassim Khelifa, the lead researcher from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, knew what the ladies were up to because they came to life once their companions flew away.
The poor females are possibly right to act this way because moorland hawker dragonflies might end up with permanent damage to their reproductive tracts after mating.
That doesn’t change the fact that that’s a surprising behavior, and this is the first time that behavior has been observed in dragonflies. And yes, they do that all the time.
COMMENTS