By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying --
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying.
Unfortunate Coincidence
-- Dorothy Parker
Dating is serious business in the animal kingdom. Dinner and a movie is nothing compared to a love harpoon, cyanide, or pre-copulatory cannibalism.
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| Hey Baby, I made this deadly poison just for you. |
"Flying in daytime and spectacularly conspicuous to predators, six-spot burnet moths have evolved to release cyanide when injured. It's an effective but costly defense: Cyanide isn't easy to produce, requiring intensive nutrient and energy investments.
During mating, male six-spots make a gift of cyanide, transferring it to females for use in their own defense. Females also transfer cyanide into their eggs, bequeathing larvae with an helpfully poisonous inheritance."
-- From Freaky Ways Animals Woo Mates with Gifts (Wired, Brandon Keim)
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