Mating

Mating
Dragonflies mating
Tortoises mating
Chlosyne lacinia butterflies mating on a flower
Two Simosyrphus grandicornis (Hoverflies) mating in midair
Mating pair of Laothoe populi moths
Ladybug mating

In biology, mating is the pairing of opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for copulation. In social animals, it also includes the raising of their offspring. Copulation is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization. The two individuals may be of opposite sexes or hermaphroditic, as is the case with, for example, snails.

For animals, mating methods include random mating, disassortative mating, assortative mating, or a mating pool. In some birds, it includes such behaviours as nest-building and feeding offspring. The human practice of mating domesticated animals and of artificially inseminating them is part of animal husbandry.

Contents

In animals

In some terrestrial arthropods, including insects representing basal (primitive) phylogenetic clades, the male deposits spermatozoa on the substrate, sometimes stored within a special structure. Courtship involves inducing the female to take up the sperm package into her genital opening without actual copulation. In groups such as dragonflies and many spiders, males extrude sperm into secondary copulatory structures removed from their genital opening, which are then used to inseminate the female (in dragonflies, it is a set of modified sternites on the second abdominal segment; in spiders, it is the male pedipalps). In advanced groups of insects, the male uses its aedeagus, a structure formed from the terminal segments of the abdomen, to deposit sperm directly (though sometimes in a capsule called a "spermatophore") into the female's reproductive tract.

Other animals reproduce sexually with external fertilization, including many basal vertebrates. Vertebrates (such as reptiles, some fish, and most birds) reproduce with internal fertilization through cloacal copulation (see also hemipenis), while mammals copulate vaginally.

For some animals, copulation may or may not be related to reproduction; for example chimpanzees and especially bonobos are known to copulate when the female is not fertile, presumably for pleasure, which in turn strengthens social bonds. See also sexual intercourse and human sexual behavior.

In plants and fungi

Like in animals, mating in other Eukaryotes, such as plants and fungi, denotes sexual conjugation. However, in vascular plants this is mostly achieved without physical contact between mating individuals (see pollination), and in some cases, e.g., in fungi no distinguishable male or female organs exist (see isogamy); however, mating types in some fungal species are somewhat analogous to sexual dimorphism in animals, and determine whether or not two individual isolates can mate.

See also


Taxa specific
General

External links

Media related to Animal sex at Wikimedia Commons


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • mating — mating. См. спаривание. (Источник: «Англо русский толковый словарь генетических терминов». Арефьев В.А., Лисовенко Л.А., Москва: Изд во ВНИРО, 1995 г.) …   Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.

  • mating — index matrimony Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • mating — noun the act of pairing a male and female for reproductive purposes (Freq. 2) the casual couplings of adolescents the mating of some species occurs only in the spring • Syn: ↑coupling, ↑pairing, ↑conjugation, ↑union, ↑sexual …   Useful english dictionary

  • Mating — Mate Mate, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Mated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Mating}.] 1. To match; to marry. [1913 Webster] If she be mated with an equal husband. Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. To match one s self against; to oppose as equal; to compete with. [1913… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • mating — The pairing of male and female for the purpose of reproduction. assortative m. selection of a mate with preference for (or aversion to) a particular genotype, i.e., nonrandom m.. SYN: nonrandom m.. cross m. cross. nonrandom m. SYN: assortative m …   Medical dictionary

  • mating — noun Mating is used before these nouns: ↑behaviour, ↑dance, ↑display, ↑pair, ↑partner, ↑ritual, ↑season …   Collocations dictionary

  • mating — mat|ing [ˈmeıtıŋ] n [U] sex between animals ▪ the mating season …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • mating — mat|ing [ meıtıŋ ] noun uncount sex between animals: a mating ritual …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • mating — noun (U) sex between animals: the mating season …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

  • mating — UK [ˈmeɪtɪŋ] / US noun [uncountable] sex between animals a mating ritual …   English dictionary

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