En garde!
Unsheathed: The happy couple cross swords...
Turbellarians are a strange bunch, even for a species of flatworm. What makes them slightly odder than their other flatworm cousins is the fact that they’re all hermaphrodites who use their penises (of which they have two) as swords when they mate.
In one of the most aggressive forms of mating I can recall, these horrible little beasts go about wielding their spermy lengths like maniacal Spartans trying to impale one another. Whoever makes the first successful stab ‘wins’ the right to be the male, while the one left licking its wounds becomes the female.
Being male is held to be an unparalleled victory among the flatworm fraternity, simply because a) men don’t have to look after the kids and b) men don’t have to live with the shame of such a barbaric insemination.
Nature, apparently, is the original sexist.
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