Why Do Insects Have Gay Sex? Does it Make Them Gay? Can They go to The Olympics??

Male insects generally have gay sex by mistake: they can't tell
 the difference between a male and female until the act is done 
Credit: Reddogs | Shutterstock

Insect sex may seem fairly simple: fluttering dances, clasping

 abdomens, a quick mount on a forest floor.

 But a new review of homosexual insect encounters suggests 

the acts may not be that straightforward for the individuals involved.

Researchers have widely examined 

homosexual behavior in mammals and birds, but have 

addressed it less frequently in insects and spiders. 

To assess the range of evolutionary explanations for 

same-sex intercourse in the invertebrate world, a team of

 biologists from Tel Aviv University in Israel examined 

roughly 100 existing studies on the topic and compiled the first comprehensive review of homosexuality in invertebrates. 

The review was published earlier this month in the journal

 Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.  They have evolved

 to mate quick and dirty," said study co-author Inon Scharf,

 an evolutionary ecologist at Tel Aviv University. "They grab

 every opportunity to mate that they have because, if they 

become slow, they may give up an opportunity to mate."

The team focused on male-male interactions to simplify the 

analysis, and found that most of these encounters occurred 

as accidents. Whereas larger animals have developed more

 complicated homosexual motivations — like maintaining alliances,

 which has been found in certain primate and seagull species

 — insects seem to mistakenly partake in it in a hasty attemp

t to secure mates. [Gay Animals: Alternate Lifestyles in the Wild]

Desperate mates

In some cases, males carry around the scent of females they 

have just mated with, sending confusing signals to other perusing 

males. In other cases, males and females look so similar to

 one another that males cannot tell if a potential mate is a

 female until he mounts "her" and prepares for the act, 

Scharf said.

Sometimes, such extreme indiscrimination leads to 

mating with inanimate objects, as has been observed in 

beetles trying to mount glass bottles.

The glass bottle "looks like a huge female to them,” 

Scharf said. "They just try to mate with whatever gives 

them a vague impression of an opportunity."

Other studies do, however, show evidence of more intentional 

and malicious motivations behind homosexual insect sex.

 Male butterflies, moths and wasps, for example, use same-sex

 encounters to distract competitors from potential female mates.

 Certain beetles have even been found to use same-sex 

mounting as a way to spread sperm to other males that may

 then pass it along to the next female he mounts, though this 

mechanism does not appear to be very effective.

Since male insect anatomy is not designed to accept 

male genitals, improper penetration can cause bodily damage in 

aggressively competing mates. This anatomy blocker is not

 a problem for all species, since not all insect sex involves

 penetration. Even so, one study found that certain male 

insects have developed femalelike genitals to lower the risk 

of damage from homosexual penetration.

Is insect sex pleasurable?

On the other hand, female-female homosexuality appears to

 have a separate set of motivations, and deserves a whole

 separate analysis, Scharf said. In general, female-female 

interactions seem more intentional than male-male interactions. 

In fact, one study found that certain female beetles mount each

 other to look larger and attract more male mates.

The frequency of homosexual behavior in the insect world

 also remains unclear; however, more cases have been

 observed in the lab than in the field. This could indicate

 that the behavior occurs during stressful or isolating conditions,

 Scharf said, but more work is needed to confirm this idea.

And while the possibility that any sort of sexual encounter 

could induce pleasure in insects may seem unlikely, Scharf 

does not rule it out.

"I don't know if they enjoy things or not, or if they feel fear,”

 Scharf said. "They have some stress hormones — and they

 sense it — but whether you can define this as fear, pleasure

 or pain is very difficult to say." 

The team next hopes to conduct experimental studies on a

 species of beetle to determine how homosexual behavior

 affects different aspects of the animal's life, and whether the

 behavior is linked to any other specific types of behaviors.

by Laura Poppick on Twitter. Follow LiveScience on

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