Here are two lobsters having sex

From the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Facebook page, here are two lobsters doing it — apparently in the missionary position.

But looks can be misleading. What's actually going on here is external fertilization — that is to say, procreation without any of the potentially awkward penetration. Male lobsters produce spermatophores, packets of sperm, which they attach to the female's sternum. That's what you see happening here, according to the Sanctuary. Later, the female will use that sperm to fertilize her eggs.

Thanks to David Shiffman and Carin Bondar!

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: lobsters • oceans • Science • Sex

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destroy_all_humans

I hear male lobsters are shellfish lovers
http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic

Yeah thanks a lot Marine Sanctuary. That WAS my intent at the time until your goon paparazzo showed up shining the sun in our face. I was almost ready to seal the deal too. She swam off in a hurry right after this shot was taken. You can imagine what happened next when I got home and my wife read the story and saw the picture. Now she won’t talk to me either. Do you even know how hard it is to find a decent babysitter here? I’m a goddam city councilman too!
mickcollins

Shellfish lovers Unite!
dave3

Interesting, depositing sperm to the female’s sternum is a popular theme in many videos.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic
  
  mostly from Germany. I hear.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Thanks. Now I’m going to hear the terms pearl necklace, hot carl and dirty sanchez sung to the tune of Mack the Knife for the rest of the day.
http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

Not sure if related but my dad was diving for lobsters one day and he swears there was a male in this hole in the rock pushing the females out first.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic
  
  Ah the elusive John Edwards lobster