Snake females also have a clitoris, or rather: two halves. Biologists would have known this long ago if they had not mistaken the bumps in question for scent glands. Australian biology PhD student Megal Folwell, which she recently correctly defined in Proceedings of the Royal Society Btogether with three co-authors, calls for more research into female genitalia.
Male snakes have long been researched into the so-called hemipenis – literally: a penis in two halves. But the hemiclitoris in female snakes seemed absent. Strange, because several other female reptiles, such as lizards and worm lizards, were known to have one. If a snake clitoris has ever been published, then on closer inspection it turned out to be a hemipenis, or a scent gland.
No spines
It now appears that some ‘scent glands’ are actually female genitals. Folwell cleared up the mystery by cutting open the tail of a death adder, where she discovered a small triangular organ between the scent glands and behind the cloaca. She fixed it with formalin, sliced it up for scanning, and concluded it was a hemiclitoris.
Subsequently, dissection of eight other snake species, including the diamond python, showed that the genitals were also present in them, albeit sometimes barely perceptible. Unlike the lizard’s hemiclitoris, that of snakes has no spines. Their organ is also less mobile: they cannot retract it into their body.
The next step is to investigate whether the hemiclitoris also provides pleasure in female snakes, the authors write. In lizards, the hemiclitoris has so far been regarded mainly as a stimulus for the male, not the female herself. A curious hypothesis, because in female mammals it is known that they can be sexually stimulated via the clitoris – at the beginning of this year, for example, research on dolphins showed. Folwell suspects that snake females can also enjoy their hemiclitoris. “In a follow-up study, we will see how many nerves it contains, to see how sensitive the organ is,” she writes by email. “Female genitals have long been overlooked in biological research, but the subject seems to be finally gaining recognition. That’s fantastic.”
This organ has been overlooked for decades
Frank Vonk snake researcher
Freek Vonk, snake researcher at Naturalis and endowed professor at VU University Amsterdam, is also enthusiastic about the publication. “A completely new discovery for science! For decades, this organ has been overlooked, or dismissed as a scent gland or rudimentary tissue.”
The results immediately raise many new questions, he adds. “Does the clitoris perhaps provide some kind of relaxation, so that mating is less painful? In many snake species, the genitals of the male are studded with spines or barbs, so that they remain firmly attached to the body of the female. Or does it provide sexual pleasure and perhaps the females seduce the males? This research will certainly have a tail.”
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