Do I Make You Horny, Madame Butterfly?
February 6th, 2007 by The Brewmaster
Certain types of bacteria apparently turn otherwise innocent female butterflies into wanton sluts:
A germ that kills males also triggers a vicious cycle of increasing female promiscuity and male sexual exhaustion in a species of butterfly, scientists report
The researchers expected that the fewer male butterflies there were, the less sex females likely would have with males. Surprisingly, female promiscuity actually rose.
“Greater numbers of female partners leads to fatigue in males. They start producing smaller sperm packages,” Charlat said. “Unfortunately, the female butterflies instinctively know that the packages are smaller and that their chances of having been sufficiently impregnated after mating are lower than usual. This just makes them more rampant.”
From the point of view of a dude butterfly, this seems to be a bit of a double-edged sword. I suppose there are worse perils to face than male sexual exhaustion due to slutty females, but that whole dying thing isn’t too cool.
(Source)