This is the story of a love affair between
male Australian jewel beetles, and roadside trash. Julodimorpha bakewelli live in Australia’s
arid western regions. They’re big, orange, and bumpy– and that’s
how they like their females, too. In the 1980s, entomologists Darryl Gwynne
and David Rentz noticed a few of these male beetles were desperately attempting to mate
with discarded beer bottles on the side of the road– apparently, thinking that the bottles
were the biggest, orangest and bumpiest females they’d ever seen. To be sure, the scientists tested their hypothesis
by placing four bottles on the ground in an open area. Within a half hour, two of the bottles- the
orange, bumpy ones- had attracted additional male beetles, while regular wine bottles had
not. As amusing as this might be, it was having
serious consequences for these ambitious breeders: the males were so determined to copulate with
the beer bottles, that they were dying from dehydration, or were consumed alive by ants. As the years went on and people became more
aware to not littering the ground with trash, things seemed to improve for the beetles–
until a couple of years ago they made headlines again when it was discovered that they were mating with orange traffic cones and safety vests.
These are so fun!
Basketballs?
This would have been a great Adam & Eve sponsorship.
I had heard about the beer bottles but not the cones.
Great story. Always found this one amusing.
Really really like this new format.. just saying!!
Well, I mean, that is an awfully sexy traffic cone.
They won an IG Nobel, didn't they? I heard this story a couple of years ago, but I didn't know they've moved to traffic cones & vests.
wouls you like to know more
What if they're just alcoholics?
I hope she didn't travel all the way to Australia just for that trash shot.
Actually, that would make the whole trips tax write off..so now I hope she did?
these minute marvels are awesome!
She should totally 'metoo' those beetles.
Since you`re wearing a safety vest I assume it`s an invitation to Copulate..
Oy, horny little buggers, ain't they! 🙂
Now that is an insect science fetish fact for you. Freaky beetles.
Forever Alone Beetle
My goldfish-level attention span is very thankful for this series
A horny beetle will have his way and even if it is a traffic cone he is thinking Why spoil the beauty of a thing, it's the biggest orange cone I ever saw and it is good enough for me.
Great quick video Emily!
Those are the horniest beetles…
I was at the melbourne museum a while back and they have an area all about bugs. They a little segment about these beetles and their bottles, apparently the biologists contacted VB (the apparent beer in question) and ask them to change their bottle design. Apparently they did, and now all brown beer bottles are smooth and shiny!
That's a big ass Fleshlight for a bug.
i love these
"Doesn't matter, had sex." -beetle
Fun and interesting
that is almost unbeerlivable
I had heard the story about the beer bottles before — though it's always interesting and funny — but I hadn't heard of the more recent development.
Haven't the orange traffic cones and safety vests been around awhile? If they've had them in Australia for as long as we have in the U.S., is this attraction new? If so, do you or they have any idea why?
Seems like those things would be different enough from the beetles that it shouldn't be a problem. Even the beer bottles seem like they should be obviously too big to be beetles, but that's at least in the realm of being vaguely understandable.
Sounds like evolution in action: in one generation, they breed less stupid males.
The Vegemite was a nice touch, makes me proud to be an Australian fan of your work 😛
This really is the best series!!!
Now I want to know more! I need an ending to this story 😀
1:07 fucking australia, when the fauna doesn't want to kill you, it wants to violate you
Love is… blind and stupid?
That was great.
/666th Like!
I like my females like my ladies like I like my squash, big, orange, and bumpy
Are you guys posting these 60 sec videos on Twitter? I’m sure they would do pretty well on there (esp if you add subtitles)
Are those… beetle earrings?
Interesting story and fun delivery. Great job, Emily. (Also, this is awkward, but you might want to eliminate orange safety vests from your wardrobe from now on.)
I LOOOOOOOVE this new format!
I live in Western Australia and a while ago I was on a holiday in the Southwest and ran along a town called Boyup Brook which had at it's visitor centre one of the largest collections of jewel beetles in the world, owing to the occupancy of Keith Carnaby, an entomologist who spent his life collecting and studying jewel beetles. I picked up a book he wrote there called "Jewel Beetles of Western Australia" that contains a little information on his studies and jewel beetles, and pages upon pages of both scaled up and 1:1 scale photographs of the different specied he had found specimens of.
Nice use of Bundaberg Ginger Beer instead of regular beer!
Hi Sunshine, an so the movie 50 shades of orange was inspired by the life an death of these Male Beatles. May you enjoy peace an prosperity, while manifesting all the love an light of life.
🎼Love is a many splendored thing! 🎶
> https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1440-6055.1983.tb01846.x
they should call them jersey shore beetles
since they'll bang anything orange
the best yet!
I love this!
the simulations are on spot
… If they are trying to make with traffic cones, then maybe the species deserves to go extinct.
Glad she didn't actually eat the Vegemite. She almost died!
It’s cool what you can learn in 60 seconds and it invites you to look further into the topic if it truly peaks your interest! Keep up the awesome videos and amazing work 🙂
Australian mate
survival of the fittest, I say.
"A quiet dignity." Yep, that's how I would describe The Brain Scoop. Unleash the cabbage!
Hey they like what they like 🙂
Oh yes, this is going to be an amazing series. Thanks!
I soooo appreciate the small intricacies of these videos; they just make everything so much more fun. I feel like I remember these stories better than most things I learn from videos. Great work once again 🙂
Love your videos! But please, never eat a tim tam like this! You should eat them with hot beverage! Its a waste to eat them plain… here in brasil, they are as expensive as an apartment! hahahahaha
I like your sense of humor
BUNDABERGS
Fascinating! And a great example of how human made objects can cause problems in ways we might never have predicted.
When you had that spoon full of vegemite I was like "Do it…do iiiiiit, c'mon do iiiiiit!, awe :("
Awesome
😅
Not the brightest beetles… Except in colour.
I feel like this warrants a 5 minute video
By the way.. it still has brains on it 🙂
you know who else lives in Australia's arid western regions?
me, it's me.
These are great, but I want all of them to be longer! You give me this little tiddle of information and I want MORE.
nice use of the ginger brew there
Who's the one person who didn't like this??
I really like these quickie reports about museum specimens, but most of them end up being more than 60 secomds long. So maybe they should be titled “Specimens Of About 60 Seconds, Give Or Take A Few Minutes.”
Or maybe that’s my OCD talking.
trump would like to grab them by the … wings. let's send him to Australia! they'll enjoy him so much!
stoopid beetuls!
Beetles looking for love in all the wrong places.
Love it! ❤
Well that was a delightful minute!
If you can eat an entire spoonful of Vegemite, you're granted Australian citizenship.
Emily I noticed you don't eat any of your veggie.
Oh how we sacrifice for our art.
You forgot the part about Australia changing laws about coloured glass.
More information required! Come back! Stop Walking Away!
I just want to appreciate that you could have chosen any brown beer bottle but you went with bottles of genuinely Australian Bundaberg ginger beer.
Woowwwww…. wait, does that counts as a fetish??
Omg, those reenactments!! xD
I just found out you have a butterfly named in your honor, Wahydra Graslieae , that's so cool!
These segments leave me wanting to learn more, love how much info you can pack into them!
This series is so great!
Disappointed you didn’t try the vegemite
Ugh. These are too short. I hate them.
Thebrainscoop Did anyone notice the use of Bundeburg Bottles (Australian Ginger Beer) Nice touch!! Read about you on cbs news, congrats on the mainstream exposure! Subscribed and can’t wait to watch someone smart for a change
hey there sexy beetles
YOU WERE IN AUSTRALIA?!?! WHICH CITY?!?!
Imagine trying to seduce an appartment building-sized parner
You got fat
This is an awesome format for videos; also this is just a fantastic video. Nothing is as weird and wild as science, OMG.
Supernormal stimulus
– falih köksal
Note to self: don't get a spray on tan before going to Australia.
Beetles, you are literal disaster trash children. Smh.
Maybe God created them to go extinct. Just saying…