'Tension and tenderness', a red-backed water strider story

'Tension and Tenderness' by author 'Gerris Halliwell', Tessa Smith and Bridget White

Written for the National Science Week 'Fabulous, freaky and fierce world of female reproduction' event 12th of August at Simple Cider, North Hobart. Short talks and stories about the 3D printed animal vaginas were presented to attendees of the event.

You can read more about the ecology of this species here.

'She had watched the females from the other water strider species. She knew how they worked- the male would mount them, hold them, have his way with them. He may ride them for weeks, not allowing them choice.

She was different. She wanted control. She was a red-backed water strider. Rather than having concave gonocoxae—a love cave, she had a love drawbridge.

He could see her there, across the water. Her long, slender legs, her tantalizingly shaped abdomen, the curves of her thorax. He wanted her.

He mounted her, holding her in such a way that scientists would write about for decades.

What he really wanted was for her to extend her draw bridge of love, the sweet entrance to her vulvar opening.

She was unsure. She waited. Her genital shield moving nowhere. She knew that he would only get what he wanted if she allowed it.

He became impatient, sensing that she might not be interested. She may not need him.

He began to tap the surface of the water with his legs, creating ripples that emanated from underneath them, indicating their presence.

They both knew the risks of being caught. The beasts that lurked beneath knew to look for those ripples.

She weighed up the risks. If she allowed herself to be seduced by him now, she could still get away. She could attempt to throw him off, or move to an area away from the danger, as he had no control over where they ended up, being up off the ground on top of her.

She didn’t like being forced into making a quick decision over who she had to mate with, but with an expected adult life of between six months and a year, she couldn’t afford an extended period of forbidden glances and poorly hidden longing like other species might.

You know, he wasn’t the best looking strider she had ever seen, but he had a cheeky glint in his compound eyes, and there was a certain way he moved his antennae that suggested something that there was more to him.

She decided to act quickly. She raised her gonocoxae in such a way that her anal opening became exposed, sticking up for him to admire. He tapped the water surface faster, his excitement building. She was becoming aware of a rumbling underneath as his rhythmic tapping intensified. She couldn’t wait any longer. She opened her gonocoxae, her shield, the defender of the most vulnerable, the most intimate part of her body. Her long ovipositor lowered gently, exposing her vulvar opening.

“Clasp my gonapophyses with your inflated phallus and give it to me” she cried. He obliged willingly, feeling sweet release.

The rumbling beneath was becoming louder. He took one last look at the way the light from the setting sun bounced off her wings. He took off into the sunset, the moment embedded is his mind forever.

She retracted her ovipositor and lowered her anal segment, ensuring the protection of her sweet flower, before making her way to the pond edge. She directed his sperm to her spermatheca for storage.

As the sun set, she thought “yes… that will make for a nice egg”. '