The anglerfish has a really strange way of doing the deed, i.e. reproducing. At first, scientists who studied anglerfish were puzzled as to why most of the specimens that they found were females; soon, however, a gruesome story was revealed after it was noted that many female anglerfish had what looked like parasites attached to them.
Male anglerfish have one aim in life and that is to use their olfactory senses to find a female anglerfish to attach to, as they are much smaller and have problems finding food. If that is not enough to deal with, the male anglerfish often, also, has a severely stunted gut (alimentary canal) and so can't eat anyway.
When the male anglerfish finally locates a female, he bites into her skin which releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body. The romantic pair then, become fused together, down to the blood vessel level. The male then slowly wastes away (atrophy) leaving only a pair of gonads ( testes).
When the female anglerfish is ready to reproduce she releases a hormone and sperm is released. Multiple males can attach and be incorporated into a single female.
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| Flickr Gary Robson |
Books To Read
Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics, by Anthony A. Long.
