Comments on: Tiny water insect makes record-breaking song with his penis

By: Twanna Mccalanahan

Twanna Mccalanahan — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:12:35 +0000

Hello world, my name is penis.

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:15:33 +0000

A singing sword?

I think the method of comparison should avoid the presumption that size and loudness are in a linear relationship. Sizes and loudnesses of various animals should be plotted to find a curve that gives an expected output for each input. (Statisticians must have a word for this; is it “regression”?) Then the animal that has the highest ratio of loudness to expected loudness wins.

By: Gunnar

Gunnar — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:53:51 +0000

Victory for the penis! Hurray!

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:18:02 +0000

They looked at snapping shrimp – not even close!

By: Gunnar

Gunnar — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:13:55 +0000

Some possible contenders for the title “loudest animal by size” are the snapping shrimp – a group of Crustaceans in the family Alpheidae. Using their asymmetrical claws, they can produce sounds as high as 218 dB. The sound is used both to stun prey and to communicate with other members of the same species.

See for instance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONQlTMUYCW4&feature=related.

It is, however, not as nice as a good erotic penis song.

By: Marc

Marc — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:59:27 +0000

When I saw the headline, I thought it was another story about Anthony Weiner.

By: Charles Sullivan

Charles Sullivan — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 07:08:01 +0000

Where’s the greater water boatman? That’s what I want to know.

By: HL_guy

HL_guy — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:59:56 +0000

Imagine if they had Twitter… the scandal.

By: Clive

Clive — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:06:03 +0000

So long as it doesn’t tweet pictures of its package; the other bugs will ask it to step down.

By: Adela

Adela — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:02:37 +0000

Dan there is an MP3 at the page that the official bug name links to, and pretty pictures.