http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/26/male-frog-extracts-and-fertilises-eggs-from-dead-female/
For a small Amazonian frog called Rhinella proboscidea, death is no impediment to sex. The males form huge mating balls in which dozens of individuals compete to fertilise a female. These competitions are so intense, and the combined males so heavy, that the poor female sometimes drowns in the struggle.
But for the males, that’s not a deal-breaker. Thiago Izzo from Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research has found that the males can force the eggs from the bodies of the deceased female, and fertilise them. It’s a unique strategy and one that effectively involves sexual reproduction with a dead partner. Izzo calls “functional necrophilia”.
R.proboscidea is a small frog that looks like a dead leaf, right down to its pointed snout, its brown colour and the central white ‘vein’ running down its back. But its camouflage breaks down when it’s time to mate. Hundreds of males gather at breeding sites for just two to three days and when any female shows up, there’s intense competition for her attention. This strategy is called “explosive breeding” and it’s as violent as it sounds. Males wrestle for mating rights, and will try to displace any rivals that have actually found a female. The result is a large mating ball with a female at its bottom. She often drowns.
In the deadpan style of academics, Izzo writes that “such occurrences are obviously detrimental to females”. You don’t say.
He has seen the aftermath of the carnage first-hand, having found several explosive breeding sites in Brazil’s Adolfo Ducke Forest Reserve between 2001 and 2005. The first time, he found around 100 males and 20 dead females. The second time: 50 males and 5 dead females. But when Izzo dissected the females, he couldn’t find any eggs inside them. Where had they gone?
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