Bush Cricket Wins Award For Largest Testes In Relation To Body (14% Of Body Weight!)

The Bush Cricket has officially taken the award for the world's largest testicles in relation to body weight, with some pairs weighing in at 14% of the insect's total mass. Pfft, mine are 40%. AND on the back of my neck. Wait -- are those mine?

In a study of their mating strategies, the team found they release only small amounts of sperm at each mating.

That suggests the big testes are for mating with many females, not producing competitive volumes of sperm for each encounter.

The previous holder was a species of fruit fly - Drosophila bifurca - whose testicles to body weight ratio has been recorded as 10.6%.

Their testes make up some 14% of their body weight - roughly equivalent to a male human with testicles weighing five kilograms (11lbs) each.

Haha, that reminds me of the prank where you call a bowling alley and ask if they carry 11lb balls. "You do? How the hell do you walk around with those things?!...A wheelbarrow?! No shit. Well damn -- props, dude."

Bush cricket testicle size clue to promiscuous mating [bbc]

Thanks to killerabbit, Laouik and Derek, who are all in the top 10th percentile on the human ball chart. And to ironballsmcginty, who's in the top 1.

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