Fellatio keeps male fruit bats keen

18:35 29 October 2009 by Michael Marshall




Female short-nosed fruit bats have been observed performing fellatio on their partners during copulation. Mating pairs spent more time copulating if the female did so.

Cynopterus sphinx live in south-east Asia. The males often roost with small groups of females.

Min Tan of the Guangdong Entomological Institute in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues captured 30 male and 30 female short-nosed fruit bats in Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou City and observed their mating behaviour in enclosures.

The bats copulate dorso-ventrally, with the male mounting the female from behind. During mating, the females reached over to lick the base of the male's penis in 14 of the 20 pairs that copulated.

The tip of the penis had already penetrated the female's vagina, and the males did not withdraw when the female licked the base of the penis.

Both the duration of an individual copulation, and the overall time a mating pair spent copulating, were increased if the female performed fellatio.