Date:         Mon, 17 Jun 91 21:19:32 CDT
 From: "Edward A. Lisowski" <3KSNFZM@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
 Subject:      Buggery in insects

 The following is from "The Proceedings of the Washington Entomological
 Society" and is a summary of a talk at their October 4, 1990 meeting.

      "...Vic's talk, entitled 'Homosexuality and Insect Sexuality: Origin and
 Raison d'Etre,' reflects his lifelong passion for ferreting out papers on
 sexual behavior--especially aberrant behavior--ostensibly to comprehend the
 the mechanisms of sex determination.  His thesis is that chemicals, sounds,
 or even particular frequencies of sound can determine sex...It somehow follows
 that homosexuality is merely a matter of timing in the maturing egg which,
 according to Vic, initially develops both sexes.  Evidence for this supposedly
 may be found in a veritable _Mondo_ _Cane_ of entomovoyeurisms:  aging female
 fruit flies become lesbians and behave like amazons; male bed bugs, notorious
 copulators even as heterosexuals, occasionally are seen sinking their aedeagi
 into one another; moths of many species, reared in mixed colonies, exhibit
 rampant homosexuality; various male beetles frequently attempt to mate with
 each other, especially if rejected by a female, and some, apparently crazed by
 the presence of female pheromones, will mount their dead brethren, thereby
 qualifying as necrophiliacs..."

 (Vic is Dr. Vic Adler, Research Entomologist (retired), U.S. Department of
 Agriculture.  Some of this work was probably supported by your tax dollars.
       --Ed Lisowski)