I'm trying to insert a bit of weirdness into the world I'm building, and one of the ideas I'm toying with is to have one of my 3 alien races practice oral castration as a core part of reproduction. Essentially, at the height of reproductive intercourse, the female of the species would eat the reproductive organs of the male (entirely, so testes, penis and any covering skin or other organs) directly from the male's body in small bites.
The male would survive this and regrow the organs over a period of weeks. he can do this a limited number of times (though it's a high limit, somewhere in the low hundreds), and after the last iteration he would effectively be sterile. Only the male can regrow their reproductive organs, and only those organs in full.
I currently have 3 core nonhuman races planned in a space comedy adventure setting (with some inspiration from the works of Douglas Adams and Mass Effect), one of which I'd like to give this trait:
- An insectoid species based on Earth's dung beetle that's incredibly durable, but slow;
- An avian swarm species based on hummingbirds that is incredibly fast, but physically weak;
- an amphibious species based on squids and snails that is incredibly strong, but physically fragile.
All species above are capable of FTL travel, so they're not primitives or pre-FTL species.
I'm trying to come up with an adequate reason why this trait evolved in this way in one of these races (Just one of them). I'd really like it if this trait was an absurd cultural evolution, and the biological benefit is only marginal.
I know I could make this trivial through methods like "the genitals contain vital hormones needed for conception" or "the semen needs to be ingested for conception, and having the genitals included means they stand a greater chance at survival", so I'm hoping for something that isn't a base reproductive drive and can also serve as part of the comedy.
Information on the races:
The insectoid species evolved on a world with incredibly high oxygen values in the atmosphere, allowing them to grow to the size of an Earth giant tortoise. Because of their high oxygen environment, wildfires were common, so they evolved to grow an incredibly heat resistent exoskeleton that can withstand toppling trees, as well as an organ that allows them to metabolize certain oxygen-rich molecules into oxygen so they can last prolonged periods without air. However, their massive armor and bulky breathing organ makes them incredibly slow.
Their culture is incredibly protective and sheltered. they are slow to make friends outside their own community and stick together in the same community. Pactite (the magical element in this world that's common among the 3 races and humans and which is explained in detail in Can my special material with these properties resolve the right bottlenecks in human technological progress?) gave them the ability to innately read minds and motivations. They can't read individual thoughts, but they are able to understand the instinctive emotions of others, as well as understand their motivation. This allowed the individuals to realize that nearly the entire race wanted to make friends outside their smaller community, leading to greater social contact and a kickstart in technological development. The later antigravity properties of pactite allowed the race to shore up their slowness using private antigravity platforms, allowing them to keep up with humans, the next slowest race.The avian species evolved with 4 wings and 4 claws and is about the size of a hummingbird. They evolved in a world revolving around a star with frequent dangerous radiation eruptions, forcing them to be able to quickly seek shelter among the specialized fauna and flora of the world. The species can use tools in the front claws, but can't fly well while wielding them, forcing them to drop every possession if a gamma ray eruption occurs.
The species is very focused on group society. polygamy is the norm, often involving dozens of partners of either gender. They are very quick at making new friends and love to socialize.
Pactite gave this species a global hivemind, allowing them to greatly optimize their society and go from a loose gathering of polygamous family units to a tightly integrated society where everything and everyone is free, as long as it improves the community.The amphibious species evolved on a high pressure, high gravity world in a young system with relatively many tiny meteorites that only just made it to the ocean floor. The species evolved to be able to lift nearly every meteorite under water in search of foot and mates. The species exists of a thin organ sack with long suckerless tentacles, allowing them to squeeze themselves into any opening or wedge their tentacles under any object. however, being 4 times larger than the next biggest species, they never evolved any defensive measures against other creatures, leaving them physically fragile against sharp objects.
The squid society is complicated, effectively consisting of a volatile hierarchy of strong and stronger. The strongest creatures rule the planet in a council. Any member of the race can challenge any other member of the race to a duel for their rank in society.
Pactite made a fundamental change in this society: it allowed them to mind control each other, changing the society from a game of violence to a game of wills. Mind controlled targets are mentally broken, making them entirely subservient to the rest of the species. It also makes the victim nearly infertile. However, any offspring they do create end up dramatically stronger. This creates a system where the descendants of mind controlled slaves may one day end up taking over.
