Sex & the Sea.

(or Cliff Claven's Wild Kingdom: Anglerfish for her, Inkeeper Worms for him.)

I happened to mention this to the ex tonight, and she immediately thought of the way some friends talked about of their husbands. Thought some of you ladies with exes might have had similar experiences.

Certain species of Ceratioid anglerfish have an interesting reproductive pattern. Like many fish, the male is smaller than the female. Unlike other fish, he's much smaller. Courtship consists of him seeking out a female and biting her on the belly. Not a nibble, either; the two become permanently attached, and their circulatory systems eventually fuse. The male loses all powers of independent movement and feeding, and in essence becomes a permanently attached parasite on the female, existing only to fertilize her eggs. Carrying the comparison further, once fused he often grows to a much larger size than unattached males.

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This flowed from a discussion on the Innkeeper Worm -- which I just learned about on a museum trip with the cubs last week. The Innkeeper Worm (so called because other creatures often share its burrow) is a little critter that lives off the coast of California. After hatching, larvae settle into the soft sand where, if left undisturbed, they develop into females. If, however, they are contacted by the questing snout of an adult female, they are taken into the adult's body, develop into a male, and travel to her uterus, where they spend the rest of their lives, fertilizing her eggs.

Reading this, I could not help but blurt out, "Many a human male's dream..."

(My daughter, being five, didn't get it.)