Quote Originally Posted by kc261 View Post
I like the experimentative spirit of this thread!


3) - I also wondered if the sperm plugs are actually useful in the mating process, or if they are just kind of there, due to extra production. Even if there is not viable sperm, there could be lots of other ways it helps. Perhaps when it gets deposited inside the female, it helps to make the pH or other conditions inside the female more sperm friendly or some such thing. Or maybe their usefulness is to protect the hemipenes while inside the male's body.
The only use for them is to possibly "plug up" the female to block other males sperm from fertilizing the females. I am not sure if that is actually a confirmed reason for them, but I have heard it theorized in the past. If you look sometimes after breeding you can see the end of the males plug still stuck in the female.