Sea slugs stab mates in head during sex

London – Sea slugs of ‘Siphopteron’ genus stab their partners in the head while mating to inject chemicals in each other’s brain, it has been revealed.

According to New Scientist, scientists believe that the reason behind the head-stabbing is to gain control over their partner and change the other’s behaviour to its own advantage.

Joris Koene of the Free University in Amsterdam studied four other sea slug species and found that one always stabbed near the genital opening, while the others stabbed at random, but none went for the head.

Koene inspects that slugs inject to prevent its partner from mating again, so that its sperm has a longer time to fertilise the eggs.

The study is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.