Singing Penis Insect Proves Size Does Matter

The loudest creature on Earth -- relative to its body size -- is the tiny bug, called by various names: water boatman, Micronecta scholtzi and most important: the Singing Penis. First Posted: 06/30/11 03:51 PM ET Updated: 06/30/11 03:54 PM ET

Courtship never sounded so sweet -- at least in the insect kingdom. It appears that a tiny bug known as the singing penis (also, water boatman, or Micronecta scholtzi) -- is the loudest creature on Earth, relative to its body size and the way in which it uses its penis.

BBC Nature News reports that French and Scottish scientists have determined that the male variety of the 2mm freshwater insect "sings" so loud -- at almost 100 decibels -- it's like sitting in the front row of a concert hall while a loud orchestra plays.

Here's where the penis comes into play: the male bug attempts to beguile a prospective mate by rubbing its penis against its abdomen -- something called "stridulation," which insects do all the time when they rub body parts together to produce sounds.

The scientific team was caught off guard at the volume of the insects, which are found all over Europe.

"We were very surprised. We first thought the sound was coming from larger aquatic species," said James Windmill of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

"When we identified without any doubt the sound source, we spent a lot of time making absolutely sure that our recordings of the sounds were calibrated correctly," he said.

Their findings, published in the science journal PLoS One, indicate the bewitching song of the insect designated M. scholtzi can be compared to the sound of a passing freight train.

Despite the tiny dimensions of the insects, their penis is apparently what gives them their deafening roar.

"If you scale the sound level they produce against their body size," explained Windmill, "Micronecta scholtzi are the loudest animals on Earth."

http://weirdnews.aol.com/2011/06/30/singing-penis-insect-size-matters_n_887778.html#s301085&title=Insect_with_Singing

hmm wonder how I can mail a shakeweight to Leuven

well i learned the most important lesson a man can learn in life

it's her fault

oh while you're in Southern California, don't mock Mexico

just dont

oh we went out for dinner like every other week or weekly, it was that I was waiting for her to close the shop that day

i think townies should pray fora  zombie invasion to save them

I don't think the PRC can tolerate any substantial immigration at all.  It fosters loyalty as the only authentic government of ethnic/cultural Chinese.  In fact that's a sales pitch by their spies to ethnic Chinese in Western countries: help us out, we're your people.  And its intolerant of diversity to an extreme degree, it even has a separate Catholic hierarchy of bishops so Chinese Catholics won't feel loyalty to the vatican. 

On the other hand, as an authoritarian regime it can handle a burst bubble very well.  It's perfectly capable of telling 100 million people, "You're the losers. Go suck an egg." and that's the solution to its debt crisis.

happy birthday!

when it really hits the fan the only thing for it is to sing the Happy Foot song on the way down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSLHasN9UXQ

I think the Banana Republic is at hand, where the current rich are government protected and all challengers have to pay through the ass to move up a few rungs during their lifetime.

Valdez spill is done and gone, Alaska makes beaucoup bucks.  It just sucks as a place to live, which is why federal government is the biggest employer.

Destroying the idea that the government has to limit who gets what will lead to greater growth, and growth will help us pay down the debt.  It's 2011, we should be raping the Asteroids and processing ores with our Lunar factories and vetoing UN resolutions to make us stop.  It's time we asked, "WTF is this "we" shit?" and just went for it.

USA won't do shit, half the country wants to prevent "imbalance" in growth and would rather have 1.5% GDP growth than let the rich get richer