Headless Males Make Great Lovers

by Crump, Martha L.; Crump, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780226121994
• ISBN10: 0226121992
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

The natural world is filled with diversenot to mention quirky and oddanimal behaviors. Consider the male praying mantis that continues to mate after being beheaded; the spiders, insects, and birds that offer gifts of food in return for sex; the male hip-pocket frog that carries his own tadpoles; the baby spiders that dine on their mother; the beetle that craves excrement; or the starfish that sheds an arm or two to escape a predator's grasp. Headless Males Make Great Lovers and Other Unusual Natural Histories celebrates the extraordinary world of animals with essays on curious creatures and their amazing behaviors. In five thematic chapters, Marty Crumpa tropical field biologist well known for her work with the reproductive behavior of amphibiansexamines the bizarre conduct of animals as they mate, parent, feed, defend themselves, and communicate. Crump's enthusiasm for the unusual behaviors she describes-from sex change and free love in sponges to aphrodisiac concoctions in bats-is visible on every page, thanks to her skilled storytelling, which makes even sea slugs, dung beetles, ticks, and tapeworms fascinating and appealing. Steeped in biology, Headless Males Make Great Lovers points out that diverse and unrelated animals often share seemingly bizarre behaviorsevidence, Crump argues, that these natural histories, though outwardly weird, are successful ways of living. Illustrated throughout, and filled with vignettes of personal and scientific interest, Headless Males Make Great Lovers will enchant the general reader with its tales of blood-squirting horned lizards and intestine-ejecting sea cucumbersall in the service of a greater appreciation of the diversity of the natural histories of animals.

Author Biography

Marty Crump is adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University and the author of In Search of the Golden Frog, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
1 AIN'T LOVE GRAND!	1	(38)
Rampant Machismo	2	(6)
Come Up and See My Etchings	8	(4)
Sneakers and Deceivers	12	(6)
Headless Males Make Great Lovers	18	(6)
Trading Food for Sex	24	(7)
Any Partner Will Do	31	(8)
2 THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS	39	(27)
Survival of the Pampered	40	(4)
Nests Aren't Just for the Birds	44	(6)
Babies on Board	50	(4)
A Pouch Full of Miracles	54	(8)
Left Holding the Egg	62	(4)
3 EAT TO LIVE AND LIVE TO EAT	66	(40)
Blood Meals: From Bat to Tick Attacks	66	(5)
Earth's Sanitizers	71	(5)
One Person's Pleasure Is Another Person's Poison	76	(7)
The Incredible Edible Egg	83	(4)
Life in an Organic Soup	87	(3)
Angling Lures: Masters of Deception	90	(4)
Stomping for Worms	94	(4)
A Team Effort: How (Some) Ants Get Food	98	(8)
4 DON'T TREAD ON ME	106	(43)
Chameleons of the Sea	107	(5)
Tears of Blood	112	(3)
Casting the Insides Out	115	(5)
Sit'n' Spray	120	(5)
Venom: Serpents' Fangs	125	(6)
Venom: Centipede and Spider Fangs	131	(3)
Venom: Spines, Stingers, and Stinging Cells	134	(6)
Borrowed and Stolen Defenses	140	(5)
Masquerading as Debris	145	(4)
5 YA DON'T SAY!	149	(28)
Take Cover!	150	(4)
Living Flashlights	154	(5)
Rapturous and Rapacious Reptiles	159	(3)
Smelling Is Understanding	162	(5)
Love Potion Number Nine	167	(5)
It Pays to Be Neighborly	172	(5)
Parting Thoughts	177	(1)
Appendix: Scientific Classification	178	(1)
References Consulted and Suggested Reading	179	(14)
Index	193