Nature is full of unique and beautiful creatures, and one of the amazing things is that we’re still discovering new species all the time.
Recently, researchers discovered a new beetle, and found it had a particularly unique trait: its penis is shaped like a bottle opener.
Many of us have craved a cold beer only to realize we don’t have a bottle opener. But one species of beetle will never have that problem — it’s got one built right in to its privates. Or at least, it looks like that.
“This species is characterised, among other things, by the fact that the male’s sexual organ is shaped remarkably like a bottle opener,” biologist Aslak Kappel Hansen of the Natural History Museum of Denmark said in a press release.
The uniquely-dicked insect is one of six South American beetle species discovered by researchers from the University of Copenhagen. The researchers quickly took notice of the beetle’s bottle opener penis, but for good reason — penises, it turns out, are the best way of distinguishing between different insects.
“Genitalia are the organs in insects that evolve to be different in every species. As such, they are often the best way to identify a species,” Kappel Hansen said. “That’s why entomologists like us are always quick to examine insect genitalia when describing a species. The unique shape of each species’ genitals ensures that it can only reproduce with the same species.”
See? Talking about beetle weiners isn’t immature, it’s science. But given the new species’ unmistakable resemblance, they decided to give it an apt name after a favorite beer: they dubbed it the Loncovilius carlsbergi, after the famous Danish brewery Carlsberg.
Aslak Kappel Hansen said that Carlsberg has financially supported their research for many years, so it was only fitting.
Researchers say they don’t know exactly why this beetle evolved to have a penis this shape. They say very little is known about the Loncovilius beetles, who reside only in Chile and Argentina. They live on flowers, unlike most beetles who live on the ground.
This is our new favorite insect — he’d be quite an interesting bartender 🍺
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