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(A) Two males on a parasitized A. vaga (Osnabrück, 10.ii.2008). (B) Five males on a parasitized host (Osnabrück, 23.ii.2008). Photographs © W. Rutkies. |
Parasitism itself, with it's inevitable arms race as the host evolves to combat the parasite and the parasite evolves to overcome its host's defenses is a major embarrassment to anyone trying to believe in any intelligence behind living things, or even intelligent evolution because, frankly, arms races are not intelligent.
But, even more of an embarrassment to intelligent (sic) design advocates, especially those who unashamedly link it to biblical literalism complete with the Christian god as the magic creator, are the exquisitely nasty mechanism some parasites have evolved. Their sheer malevolent nastiness precludes design by a benevolent designer and cannot possibly be presented as the work of a loving god or anything approaching one.
I've written about several of these before but this one, the details of which were published in Scientific Reports yesterday take some beating. It involves a parasitic fly known as the twisted-winged parasite which parsitises wild bees.
Abstract
In a few insect groups, males pierce the female’s integument with their penis during copulation to transfer sperm. This so-called traumatic insemination was previously confirmed for Strepsiptera but only in species with free-living females. The more derived endoparasitic groups (Stylopidia) were suggested to exhibit brood canal mating. Further, it was assumed that females mate once and that pheromone production ceases immediately thereafter. Here we examined Stylops ovinae to provide details of the mating behaviour within Stylopidia. By using μCT imaging of Stylops in copula, we observed traumatic insemination and not, as previously suggested, brood canal mating. The penis is inserted in an invagination of the female cephalothorax and perforates its cuticle. Further we show that female Stylops are polyandrous and that males detect the mating status of the females. Compared to other strepsipterans the copulation is distinctly prolonged. This may reduce the competition between sperm of the first mating male with sperm from others. We describe a novel paragenital organ of Stylops females, the cephalothoracic invagination, which we suggest to reduce the cost of injuries. In contrast to previous interpretations we postulate that the original mode of traumatic insemination was maintained after the transition from free-living to endoparasitic strepsipteran females.
© 2016 The Authors / Macmillan Publishers Limited. Reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (CC BY 4.0)
It starts off with the male twisted-winged fly stabbing the female with a hooked penis so he can inject sperm into her body cavity. This injures the female and lasts a relatively long time, thirty minutes, probably to reduce the chances of another male mating with her. Finding a female and mating with her is the sole function of the male who only lives as an adult for about five hours and has no mouthparts - they having been adapted as sensors.
To inseminate the female, the twisted-winged parasite attaches to the bee's abdomen and pushes its hook-shaped penis into the females neck region. After this the sperm fertilize many thousand egg cells in the body cavity of the female which then develop into extremely small larvae.
The female plays no part in this process because only the male is free-living. She has spent most of her life in the body of her host as a parasite, only showing a small area of her body to the world by pushing it through the body of her host. This is the area which will get stabbed by the male. The sperms find and fertilise her several thousand eggs which soon hatch.Miriam Peinert, co-author. Quoted in ScienceDaily
This presents something of a problem for the grubs because by now the bee host has been mostly consumed by their mother. This is no real problem though, since they remain within their mother's body and set about consuming her. When ready and the mother is just about all consumed, the grubs emerge from the stab wound their father inflicted on her and set of looking for another wild bee to parasitise, so starting the cycle all over again.
Apart from harming wild bees, this hideous, uncaring and indifferent process appears to have no other purpose than making more twisted-winged flies. It presents no problem at all for biology to explain since this sort of uncaring, compassion-free system is exactly what neo-Darwinian evolution predicts. The only test applied is what produces the most offspring. There is no purpose or objective other than to make as many of the next generation as possible by whatever means produces the most.
For creationists who have to accommodate all manner of irrelevant details of their favourite imaginary designer, this looks like an insurmountable problem because no omni-benevolent designer could conceivably design something so grotesque as this. Apart from an understandable discomfort with the entire subject of parasites, creationist frauds tend to keep well clear of the biology of parasitism because it can't possibly be the result of intelligent design, let alone benevolence.
'via Blog this'
Any idea how the newborn females find another bee to parasitise?
ReplyDeleteBiology has an indifferent and abhorent beauty. No so-called loving benovelent deity could countenance parasites and remain loved by its adherents. However, religous folk have an amazing ability for self delusion and will remain faithful, regardless. Now ain't that the sad truth.
ReplyDeleteThe name Twisted Winged Fly is certainly fitting for such a twisted, disgusting organism. The creator of this pest is twisted , as in mentally twisted and morally twisted. It's an embarrassment. The creator is a malevolent idiot. Unfit to worship.
ReplyDeleteThis is another disgusting, embarrassing example out of thousands of examples in Nature which illustrate the creator is amoral, mentally blind, morally blind, insane, stupid; heartless, vile, pitiless, heartless, merciless, incompetent, and utterly cruel. What an apt name the Twisted Winged Fly has. What a disgusting, despicable, diabolical, demented creation this is. What kind of vile, degenerate, demented demon created this monstrosity? Its utterly evil. The creationists should be ashamed and embarrassed. This looks like something the Devil created. Theres no way an all good God would create such vile rot. No way, no how. And the lame stupid execuse of blaming it on Adam and Eve is a load of manure. Creationists and Fundamentalists are so deluded and so out of touch with reality that they believe that the world was originally a paradise and peaceable kingdom until Adam and Eve ate a forbidden fruit. So Adam and Eve's sin has the power to change, corrupt, and ruin the entire Natural world as well as human nature. This is pure Fundamentalist baloney. Things dont work that way, Nature doesnt work that way, reality doesnt work that way. Thats a myth spread by deluded religious fanatics such as Saint Augustine. These kind of people are ignorant, deluded, and out of touch with reality. They have chosen to commit mental suicide in order to put faith in a Bronze age book of myths which is the Bible. Much of Nature is a huge embarrassment, and much of the Bible is a huge embarrassment. All creationists and all Fundamentalists should be shown this disgusting organism called the Twisted Winged Fly and the evil it does. The creator who made it is evil, or at least partly evil, or insane, or stupid, or amoral, or mentally blind and morally blind. Its criminally embarrassing and heinously embarrassing. There are countless other examples of such embarrassments in Nature and the Natural world. Natural evils are so numerous and so abundant that theres not enough space and not enough energy to list them all in detail. My hand is numb from writing about it. The computer would overheat from writing about it. Its utterly embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteThere are worst things in Nature than the Twisted Winged Fly. The Candiru fish in the Amazon attacks the gills of other fish to sustain its perverse nourishment, and is known to attack humans by entering the genitals and urethra, causing agonizing pain and embarrassment to the victim.
ReplyDeleteCannibalism is fairly common in Nature, and there are animals which kill their own siblings. Many animals die as babies, as do many human babies. Hyenas are known to bite the testicles of their prey and known to start eating the insides of their prey while its still alive and conscious. How much does the prey suffer? Its disgusting, cruel, inhumane. Does this resemble the work of a loving, merciful, benevolent creator? No, obviously not. The creator is a malevolent, vile, repulsive, amoral cretin idiot who has no conscience. Just watch any documentary on African wildlife and you will see the cruelty, violence, barbarism, vileness, repulsiveness. Nature is cruel and repulsive, and creationists ought to be ashamed and embarrassed, but they are too blinded, deluded, and brainwashed. Its a demonic, devilish world.
Heres another disgusting, stupid sample thats as screwed up as the Twisted Winged Fly. This other embarrassment is known ad Embryonic Cannibalism, in which unborn Sand Tiger Sharia begin rating the eggs and embryo of their siblings while stili inside the mother shark. They cannibalize their siblings before they are even born. It doesnt get any more disgusting than this. Is there no limit to the creator's vileness and stupidity? The unborn sharks eat the eggs and embryo of their siblings. This should embarrass creationists but they are too delusional to be embarrassed.
ReplyDelete