Sexnews from the mosquitosphere: "if larvae of Aedes stimulans are raised at 75F, about half become males and half become females. But if they are raised at 84F, only 9F higher, they all become almost complete females." Almost complete females? What's the meaning of "almost complete?" Either they're male, or they're female. Doesn't the good book say that "male and female created he them?"
Here's the surprising scoop. "Larvae that would have become males lack the big bushy antennae of the normal male and have mouth parts and external genitalia that are indistinguishable from those of a "real" female. Furthermore, "feminized" males have no testicles or other internal male organs of reproduction, but they do have ovaries and other internal female organs of reproduction. Some feminized males have even mated with normal males and been inseminated, but they laid no eggs."
All this mosquito sex science comes from entomologist Gilbert Waldbauer, author of A Walk Around the Pond (Cambridge [Harvard], 2006).
Professor Waldbauer claims to love his insects but he is unmoved by the plight of the 84F feminized males. Can there be sadder words in Aedes households all over the warming earth than "they laid no eggs?" It's poignant, perhaps even tragic.
How do the mosquitoes themselves feel about attenuated antennae and awkward genitalia? If Waldbauer had looked with a more compassionate eye, he would have noticed that "normal" males of the 75F variety wave their big bushy antennae and point and laugh at the feeble mini-antennae of the wannabe females. He would also have noticed that wannabe females are stigmatized and often depressed because they are so frequently picked on by "normal" males, who regularly direct loud, scornful, threatening whines at the antennae-impaired.
There's a crisis of values in mosquitoland. Many "normal" males are fundamentally convinced that the wannabes have made a conscious choice to mimic females and that water temperature has absolutely nothing to do with it. Some among the "normal" males -- the more enlightened -- propose that with the right kind of counseling and prayer, the mimics can be reclaimed. But other "normal" males hate, simply hate, the males who consort with the feminized wannabes. They condemn as unnatural all intercourse between the normal and the feminized, and they proclaim the actual act of insemination to be the work of the devil.
I myself wonder why the "normal" males get themselves into such a twist. I'm tempted to think that they protest too much -- that they themselves secretly lust after the feminized males.
I'll ask the expert, Professor Waldbauer. If he doesn't know, I'll get a second opinion. Perhaps the Rev. Ted Haggard would like to share his insights.
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