| Author | Message | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Mildred took one glance at Reginald and knew instantly that he had been unfaithful to her. How come? | ||
| Eliot (Eliot)
|
Do I know this one? Pls check e-mail. | ||
| David Burn (Woubit)
|
Are Mildred and Reginald human beings? | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Hi Eliot Do I know this one? Pls check e-mail. Your email describes a clever idea but it's not that one. Hello David Are Mildred and Reginald human beings? No they are not! | ||
| Tommy Petersson (Tommyp)
|
Is Reginald = he? Mildred = she? | ||
| Eliot (Eliot)
|
Oh, good. Living organisms? Animals? Toys come to life? Computers? | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Hi Tommy Is Reginald = he? Mildred = she? Yes Eliot Oh, good. Living organisms? Yes Animals? Yes Toys come to life? no Computers? no | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
Was Reginald dead? Eating by a black widow spider with just bits spit out? | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Was Reginald dead? Yes! Eating by a black widow spider with just bits spit out? No | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
But Lynne, you are not a million miles away! | ||
| Ed Mason (Logician)
|
Was Reginald mutilated in some way? Was it something about Reginald's body? Anything that was on his body? Was Reginald a [insert LTPF list of animals]? | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Hi Ed Was Reginald mutilated in some way? Yes Was it something about Reginald's body? Yes Anything that was on his body? No! Was Reginald a [insert LTPF list of animals]? Ed as soon as you determine what reginald is you will know the answer :-) | ||
| Shawn Franchi (Doctapeppa)
|
define "unfaithful" | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
define "unfaithful" unfaithful | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
Did Reginald have four legs, two legs, six legs, eight legs, wings, gills, fins, a beak, a perch, a nest, a basket, a cage, a field? | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Did Reginald have four legs, two legs, six legs, eight legs, wings, gills, fins, a beak, a perch, a nest, a basket, a cage, a field? Lynne thanks for humouring me :-) Reginald had 6 legs and a pair of wings | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
So an insect and not a spider? Ladybird? moth? daddy long legs? | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
Had he been splattered by a human because of being in a place he shouldn't have been? Mosquito? | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
So an insect and not a spider? that's right Ladybird? moth? daddy long legs? nope Had he been splattered by a human because of being in a place he shouldn't have been? No. I appreciate your line of thought but that's not it. His unfaithfulness would have been with another of his kind. Mosquito? No | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
Fly? Butterfly? Flea? Are these insects prone to unfaithfulness? | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Fly? Butterfly? Flea? No. It's something more exotic Are these insects prone to unfaithfulness? Not to my knowledge but not really relevant | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
Do we get them in East Anglia? Or in the Land of Eng at least? | ||
| Eliot (Eliot)
|
Praying mantis? Decapitated, by any chance? | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Do we get them in East Anglia? Or in the Land of Eng at least? No, I think they are tropical but they are well known | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
Don't miss Eliot's q. | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Well done Eliot! ******************** SPOILER ****************** Reginald's head was missing. He was a Praying Mantis, as was Mildred. | ||
| Eliot (Eliot)
|
Yippee! | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
Well done Eliot I'm kicking myself for not getting that...  | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
The idea was not original - I pinched it from a cartoon which appealed to my sense of humour - check your emails in a minute! | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
| ||
| Eliot (Eliot)
|
Oh don't kick yourself Lynne...kick someone else...then run. Nice cartoon. | ||
| Lynne (Lynne)
|
LOL | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Eliot there is a question awaiting you on your book passage! | ||
| Ana Todorovic (Ana)
|
No, I think they are tropical but they are well known Actually, I saw one last summer in Serbia (which is part of the Balkans). Continental climate, and in a coldish area, near a mountain. The locals weren't surprised to see one. I also heard female dresden flies do the same to their male companions. It supposedly increases their sexual aptitude! And in a footnote in Dawkins' "Selfish Gene", I read of this story about a young biology student who couldn't get the flies to mate. His exasperated entomology professor said: "Duh, did you try decapitating the males?" | ||
| Simon Downham (Beroean)
|
Hi Ana! Thanks for your revealing information. It is interesting to hear that these creatures exist in temperate climates. I don't think they live naturally in the UK but I could be proved wrong. I wonder if the changing climate has made a difference or if they have been native to Europe for some while? This insect erotica is fascinating isn't it! It's almost tempting to imagine the head eating phenomenon as some kind of over enthusiastic french kissing :-) From what I have read, this behaviour of the female eating the male appears to be an issue that generates some controversy. I have an open mind on the subject myself but here is some commentary that offers some further ideas on the matter. For a long time it was believed that not only did the female praying mantis consume the head (and sometimes the rest) of her mate during copulation, but that this grisly act was a necessary part of the reproductive process. (The reasons given for this act of decapitation included its being a signal to the male to release his sperm, its providing the female with protein required for her to produce more eggs, and its being a way of keeping the male from leaving prematurely.) Even though the notion that the female always eats her mate has long since been disproved, the legend of the always-deadly female persists. In a research project whose results were published in the journal Animal Behaviour in 1984, entomologists Eckehard Liske and W. Jackson Davis made videotapes of the sex lives of thirty pairs of praying mantises. They discovered that mantises engage in elaborate posturing rituals before mating, but not one of the thirty males had his head eaten during the mating process. They also noted that other scientists had observed the same thing: Although female mantises sometimes ate their mates, the deadly act by no means occurred in every case. The behavior appeared to be influenced by captivity: Female mantises were either jarred into unusually aggressive behavior by the unusual laboratory conditions, or they were simply not fed enough by their keepers. Yes, the female praying mantis does sometimes eat her mate. In fact, male mantises will often offer themselves up as food to the female during the mating process, and from a biological standpoint this action makes sense: There's no point to mating with a female who might die from a lack of food before she can lay her eggs and pass the father's genes onto the next generation. This doesn't happen all the time, however, and its frequency of occurrence and the reasons for it are still a subject a debate within the entomological world. | ||
| Eliot (Eliot)
|
I live in Temperate-climate-ville U.S.A., and I know we've always had mantises here. Anyway, at least we know what all the males are praying about! |
