The bee’s knees

Diatomaceous earth.

To be pedantic, bees don’t really have knees, just a number of joints in their legs. But if they did, their knees would be clearly viewable with a new imaging device that combines the functions of a microscope and a cell analyser: Cytell. Follow the link to find out how it genuinely was inspired by a bee leg.

I’m mainly interested in the detailed, hypersaturated and Pixar-esque aesthetic of the images produced by the Cytell. So different from what most people would imagine when the only experience of scientific images they’ve had was their dull and probably outdated school textbooks.

Mosquito’s head and proboscis. No… no, thanks.

Lingual papillae, which are found on top of the tongue. Actually looks sort of… appetising?

Praying Mantis leg.

The Cytell images are also interesting to me in the slightly more narcissistic sense that real science has finally caught up with the micro-made-macro rainbow look I devised in 2007 for a video installation and book about genomics and cellular biology that I did with the University of Edinburgh. Though to be fair, that aesthetic was in turn inspired by the real life microfluoroscopy that was obviously an ancestor of Cytell.

ABOVE: Drosophila (fruit flies). BELOW: Still and book pages from my ‘Three Times True’ project, 2007.

Gay Pride March of the Penguins

The final post inspired by Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Penguins and their gayness hardly need an introduction given the ubiquity of “on the lighter side” news reports about male Penguin couples in zoos. Wild Humboldt Penguins live in groups of 10-60 individuals, but King Penguin communities can consist of up to 300,000 pairs. Lifelong homosexual pair bonds develop between male Humboldts. They usually live together in a nest they’ve built. They also both take part in the magnificently named “ecstatic display” in which the male stretches out his head and neck, flapping his flippers and emitting a loud braying sound.

Males in heterosexual pairs also sometimes court and copulate with other heterosexually paired males and with females other than their own mate. In zoo populations of Humboldts, at least 5% of all pairs are exclusively homosexual. Other males are bisexual, pairing with males after losing a female partner.

Homosexual relationships between King Penguins are less durable, often ending in divorce after about a year. Like Humboldts, some King Penguins never show any interest in heterosexual relationships.

There are other variations on the monogamous pair and the nuclear family. About a quarter of heterosexual pairings end in divorce, often with the female leaving the male. About 6% of chicks are raised by single parents. Like the Hooded Warblers mentioned last time, Penguins occasionally (about 5% of the time) form trios. Non breeding females may join a breeding pair as a kind of nanny. Kidnap of eggs or chicks by chickless penguins occurs sometimes. It’s like a Penguin soap opera. 

Humboldt Penguin (Spheniscus humboldti)

King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Courtship, Affectionate, Sexual, Pair-bonding, Parenting Ranking: Moderate Observed: Wild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Next time… something not about gay animals!

Original Penguin image from Wikipedia Commons.

Songbird divorces

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Hooded Warblers are small yellow, green and black songbirds who spend the summer in North America and winters in Mexico and Central America.

These birds take part in all manner of homosexual and alternate-heterosexual family arrangements. Heterosexual pairs rarely build nests, but when two males get together they build one together. Sometimes they raise eggs that have been parasitically laid in their nest by a Cowbird. Male pairs also adopt eggs that have been abandoned by a female Warbler, or they shack up with another male after the female leaves; up to 50% of heterosexual pairings lead to this kind of “divorce”. There are also three-way partnerships in addition to pairs, but despite this superficial monogamy (or binogamy) over a third of Hooded Warbler young were fathered by males playing away from their partners. Single parenting is also common.

Plumage transvestism (i.e. females having some degree of male plumage and therefore a transgendered appearance) is also very frequent. This ranges from having a few black feathers on the head like a male to being visually indistinguishable from a male. In this species males are mostly the only ones who sing, but some of the transvestite females are able to sing as well.

Hooded Warbler (Wilsonia citrina)

Homosexuality: Male Transgender: Transvestism Behaviours: Pair-bonding, Parenting Ranking: Moderate Observed: Wild

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Next time on Gay Animal Fortnight… gay pride march of the Penguins

Original Hooded Warbler image from Wikipedia Commons.

You catch more Flycatchers with honey…

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Ocher-Bellied Flycatchers are small, long-tailed, olive green birds who live in lowland forests between Mexico and the Amazon.

These Flycatchers have a complex social organisation and three distinct types of male. About 42% are territorial, defending “courts” in the foliage within which they perform courtship displays. Sometimes groups of these territorials form an area of several nearby display courts, also known as a lek. 10% of males are satellites who associate with territorials but do not display. This could be regarded as a form of apprenticeship, since they often inherit the territory when the owner retires. 48% of males are itinerant and have no territory either of their own or in waiting.

The aim of the male leks is to attract a female mate, but territorial males will also court other males who visit. These visiting males will adopt the behaviour of females in every detail and be courted as if they really were female. Most interestingly of all, it appears that the courting males only realise that their mate is male when they reach the point of mating with them. At this point they will usually chase away the behaviourally “transvestite” male. The itinerant males, conversely, must be well aware that they are being courted by another male. There have been observations of apparently bisexual territorial males who court females in their own territory, but then go as a visitor in search of same-sex action in the territories of other males.

Ocher-Bellied Flycatcher (Mionectes oleagineus dyscola)

Homosexuality: Male Transgender: Transvestism Behaviours: Courtship Ranking: Incidental Observed: Wild

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Next time on Gay Animal Fortnight… more tiny avian transvestites!

No sex please, we’re Proboscis Monkeys

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. The Proboscis Monkey and its extraordinary nose lives in Borneo. The species is regarded as vulnerable, one stage away from being endangered.

Proboscis groups are centred around a polygamous male with several adult female mates, although males have little say in the group’s social life or decision making. Female relationships hold the group together and most friendly or aggressive interactions take place between females. You could possibly conceptualise it from a less patriarchal and heteronormative viewpoint as a group of females who maintain a single male partner that they agree to share. Sometimes the “excess” males band together in all-male troops.

Both males and females take part in homosexual activity, although neither heterosexual and homosexual advances are always welcomed and the aggressor will try to force them. But sexual activity of any orientation is fairly rare. In one study, there were only 12 mountings in a whole year, two of which (17%) were same-sex. 28% of all adult males never have heterosexual relations because they live in all-male groups. Proboscis Monkeys will even try to stop others having sex. Attempted heterosexual copulations gather audiences who try to disrupt the mating pair by climbing on them, pulling the male’s nose, making noises, or making distracting movements. It’s like a mashup of monkey porn and Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Affectionate, Sexual, Pair-bonding Ranking: Incidental Observed: Wild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Next time on Gay Animal Fortnight… Boy Flycatchers who like Boy Flycatchers who act like Girl Flycatchers.

Original Proboscis Monkey image from Wikipedia Commons.

The gay marriages of Swans

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Mute (European and temperate Asian) Swans are already quite well known for forming same sex partnerships, if only because newspapers and local news TV stations never seem to tire of reporting them as “amusing” filler items, as if there was something inherently absurd or comedic about them. By now you should be getting the idea that there’s nothing aberrant about it. Pairs of males, pairs of females, pairs who mate heterosexually only so one of them can get an egg of their own (i.e. what would be called among humans surrogate parenthood), and parents fostering cygnets to whom they have no biological connection: all of these are relatively common, naturally occurring and well-documented family arrangements for Swans. About 20-25% of successful (meaning in this case raising one or more cygnets to adulthood) Swan families have homosexual parents.

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Courtship, Sexual, Pair-bonding, Parenting Ranking: Primary Observed: Wild, Semiwild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

In addition to same-sex parenthood, some Swans appear to be “exclusively” homosexual. Female pairs may sit on unfertilised eggs because they’ve never mated with a male, and male pairs sometimes build nests together but never show any interest in acquiring eggs or cygnets. Moreover, up to 89% of individuals (and rarely less than 50%) in any given Swan population are barely reproductive, or they’re asexual and never attempt to breed at all. Many birds may only nest once or twice in a lifetime of 15-20 years. Male swans sometimes shack up with homosexual birds of other species, including other types of swans, or geese.

Next time on Gay Animal Fortnight… big nose means big everything? Or you’re a Proboscis Monkey.

Original Swan image from Wikipedia Commons.

I love you *VOMITS BLOOD*

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. The Common Vampire Bat is a small flying mammal that lives in central America. Obviously their most famous trait is their thirst for blood. Vampire colonies usually have between 20-100 members, though there can be up to 2,000. The main social unit is the female group of 8-12 related bats. Males sometimes have “bachelor” groups that roost in the same places as the females.

Females often mate with several males, although a vaginal plug forms after the first mating so only one of them is likely to inseminate her. When not in heat the females refuse to mate at all, and they’ll defend their refusal with as much violence as is necessary. They also exercise their prerogative to refuse males whose approaches they deem too aggressive.

Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Affectionate, Sexual, Pair-bonding Ranking: Moderate Observed: Wild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Elephants and the S-shaped configuration

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Elephants hardly need any introduction and since they weigh up to 7½ tons they definitely don’t need an introduction when you stand next to one. Sadly both the African Elephant and the Asiatic Elephant are endangered species. African Elephants live in Sub-Saharan parts of the continent; both sexes have tusks. Asiatic Elephants range from India through southeast Asia to China. They are slightly smaller in general, with smaller ears and tusks only on the male.

Elephants are matriarchal and have complex social lives. Females live in matriarchal herds, while bulls generally live alone or in smaller male-only herds. The sexes are mostly segregated and antagonistic towards each other. Females show solidarity towards one another and care for the group’s calves collectively. Unlike animals like the Manatee or the Walrus, female Elephants actively fight back against male abuse. Females charge and chase offending males, and they will intervene to forbid males from mating with juveniles of either sex.

African Elephant (Loxodonta africana)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Affectionate, Sexual, Pair-bonding Ranking: Moderate Observed: Wild

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Subscribe now for hot Manatee on Manatee action

Part of a series based on Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Manatee’s are large seal-like marine mammals, up to 2.5-4m (8-14 ft) long. This species lives in coastal areas and rivers of the southeastern United States, the Caribbean, and northeastern Brazil. Manatees are generally solitary and barely social at all. Occasionally they form small groups of two to six individuals; these groups may be mixed or consist entirely of younger males.

Having no society as such doesn’t stop male Manatees from cruising for other males. Most male Manatees are probably bisexual, since their homosexuality is usually either interspersed with heterosexual encounters, or it develops out of ménages à trois (or quatre, or more) involving a female and several males. In other words, male Manatees sometimes compete against each other for female attention but then go off with their male rival instead. A good twist there for soap opera script writers, although I daresay it’s been done already on some show or other.

West Indian Manatee (Trichelus manatus)

Planet of the Lesbian Macaques

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Unfortunately the appealing and somewhat internet famous Japanese Macaques are an endangered species. In the wild they live in forests and on mountainsides. I met a load of these Macaques who live at Arashiyama near Kyoto. They’re about a meter (3 feet) long. Their groups are between 20-100 strong. In large numbers they were more terrifying than adorable. I particularly remember a viewing area where it was safer and more practical to cage the humans and let the monkeys grip the mesh to look in.

Female Macaques form “consortships”, temporary but exclusive pair bonds based on mutual sexual attraction. The two females spend every possible moment together once they’ve bonded. There are seven different sexual positions in homosexual copulation, and they most definitely use them all. Females will actively compete and fight with Macaques of both sexes for access to their chosen female partners. Heterosexual partnerships rarely last beyond the mating season, and the homosexual consortships don’t last more than a few weeks either although unlike the heterosexual partners the female couple will remain friends. In effect female Macaques are serially monogamous. Incest is taboo, but consortships may otherwise be between females of any age.

Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Courtship, Affectionate, Sexual, Pair-bonding Ranking: primary Observed: Wild, Semiwild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)