Your article describes how the male bean
weevil’s spiked reproductive part damages the female’s reproductive tract to reduce the chance
that she will mate with other males. Could this also explain the barbs on the organ of the
domesticated tom cat? I have read that the pain of copulation induces the female’s ovulation,
but I wonder if it might also reduce the chances of her mating with other toms during that
estrus.
Peter B. Newman
San Rafael, Calif.
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