Handcuffs, traps, and spikes shed light on sex lives of insects

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Handcuffs, spikes, and traps—you would think they were part of some bondage aficionado’s bedroom collection. But what are they doing in the insect world?

A new study I worked on sheds light on why some bushcrickets—usually gentle creatures—get pretty violent when it comes to sex. In the process, the study helps to settle a decades-old debate about these insects' odd mating habits.

In just a few species of bushcrickets, scattered across the evolutionary tree, we found that males have evolved horrific-looking clasping devices near their genitals. They use them to hold females down for as long as possible after sex is done—that is, after they have transferred all their sperm. This results in long mating sessions, up to seven hours in some cases.