Science Watch: "Creatures That Have Sex in Your Coffee" -- and we've got the pix!

Plus: Coming tomorrow -- Part 1 of "Crackpot
Utopia," Noah's 2014 "Year in Republican Crazy"




"Females sometimes don't even wait around for males. In addition to their incestuous sex, they can also reproduce all on their own."

-- An image for the day (just try to forget it!)

by Ken

Anyone who thinks I could pass up a story pitched as above, as it was in a Discovery News e-mail today, clearly doesn't know who they're dealing with. Come on, creatures having sex in our coffee? You want to know all about it, don't you?

INSECTS
Creatures That Have Sex in Your Coffee: Photos
DEC 18, 2014 06:00 AM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS



Kinky sex takes place in many coffee beans before they are roasted, suggests a new study on coffee berry borers, which are the most serious pests of coffee plants worldwide.

These small beetles, native to Africa, live much of their lives in coffee beans, according to the study, which is published in the Journal of Insect Behavior. It's little wonder that the fast-living beetles, Hypothenemus hampei, have the nickname "Ferrari."

Weliton Dias Silva of the University of São Paulo and his colleagues determined that females of this tiny beetle "have to be copulated by their sibling males before leaving the native coffee fruit to improve their chances of successful colonization."

Females are about .07 inches long, while males are only about .06 inches long.

AND THE FUN DOESN'T STOP THERE, LADIES AND GERMS!

Yessiree, you ain't seen nothin' yet! Are you strapped in?

Home for the coffee berry borer are the seeds of coffee fruit, which are commonly known as coffee beans. Dias Silva and his colleagues report that the insects find their coffee bean homes after sniffing out chemicals released by coffee plants. Like many gourmet coffee drinkers, they prefer beans of Coffea arabica.

Males are always much smaller than females, so they are referred to as "dwarves."

"After copulation with their few dwarf, flightless male sibs, H. hampei females often leave the coffee berry in which they developed," Dias Silva and his team share.

Females sometimes don't even wait around for males. In addition to their incestuous sex, they can also reproduce all on their own. This phenomenon, also seen in certain snakes, sharks and other animals, is known as parthenogenesis.

The telltale sign that a beetle has been in your coffee are minute holes that females bore into beans. Usually the beans will be eaten away by larvae, which hatch from eggs laid by the females.

Another clue is a coffee bean that seems hollow inside.

Worldwide, the coffee berry borer causes an estimated $500 million in losses among coffee growers, according to the USDA. The coffee industry has an economic value exceeding $70 billion annually, with over 20 million coffee-farming families producing coffee in more than 50 countries.

"The insect can cause coffee farmers to lose up to 20 percent of a crop and reduce the price by 30 to 40 percent," said Ted Lingle, executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

He continued, "Damage from the borer fruits hurts every coffee-producing country in the world."

Now aren't you glad you asked? Happy to be able to oblige.


STARTING TOMORROW: "CRACKPOT UTOPIA" --
The 2014 edition of Noah's "Year in Republican Crazy"

Crackpot Utopia: A dream world as envisioned by republicans; a manifestation or expression of the deranged, warped alternate universe inhabited by republicans, at least in their minds. See also: Bachmannism, Boehneresque.

Starting tomorrow at 5pm ET/2pm PT -- and continuing every day thereafter until Noah either walks out of his compound smiling or is carried out feet first.

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