From firefly spermatophores to bowerbird dens to the love darts of snails, Wired takes a Valentine's Day tour of gift-giving in the animal kingdom. (From 2013)
, is a slow and beautiful process, though not without a certain amount of conflict. As with many animal species, it benefits a snail — not a male or female, as they're hermaphroditic and play both roles during mating, but any snail — to be picky about the sperm with which they're fertilized. Snails are thus able to reject the sperm of certain mates, while letting others through.
Evolution's solution: Snail love darts, the formal term for calcium-shelled harpoons that land snails fire into each others' skin during mating. Inside the darts are chemical cocktails that manipulate a partner's hormones, making it harder for them to reject sperm. Each dart-using species has its own particular shape and style of dart, several of which can be seen below.
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