Female bed bugs have to undergo something called traumatic insemination as part of the mating process – and yes, it’s as horrific as it sounds.
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Bed bugs scuttle about in the dark, and low light levels can make detecting the correct orifice in the female for the male to deposit their sperm an unnecessarily involved process. So instead, the bed bug has evolved an alternative method where accuracy is optional.
The male has a terrifying needle-like reproductive organ called an aedeagus. Males detect females who have recently fed, jump on their back and stab them in the abdomen with it. This transfers sperm into the body cavity of the female which then migrates to the ovaries to fertilise the female’s eggs.
This of course leaves the female with a gaping wound in her abdomen, and since females can be mated multiple times, unsurprisingly this does have an impact on the longevity of females as they heal from the experience.
However, in some species females have evolved an organ called a spermalege which mitigates some of the effects of traumatic insemination. Firstly, it provides a ‘target’ on the female’s abdomen for the male to aim for, and secondly ‘heals’ the wound and helps fight off infections that might have come from the male.
Top image credit: Daniel Tamas Mehes/Getty Images
