In the cold, dark, deep sea, there is no sunlight and not a hint of warmth, but occasionally you will see a little bright light somewhere in the depths, and if you are attracted to this light, you will be in the pipefish's hunting trap.
The next thing you know, you'll see a creature about a meter long with needle-sharp teeth coming at you with its bloody mouth open. This monster is the female pipefish, which are also called monkfish.
This is a kind of ugly, vicious deep-sea predator fish, you see the luminous thing is in fact their head on the "small lantern", flat is they crawled on the seabed in the sand, specializing in this luminous organ to lure prey.
The fish are a nightmare for deep-sea creatures, and are at the top of the food chain, even when they encounter creatures larger than themselves.
But you have to realize that this is a female, and in general the females of creatures are a bit softer and gentler than the males, so if the female pipefish is this vicious, then the males must be even more so.
But this time our instincts were wrong once again, and here's a photo of the male.
This isn't a male pup, but an adult male, and they're just about 10 centimeters or so in length, which is a far cry from the females.
They have a very different morphology than the females, and a different personality. Not only is the male gentle, but he's not even a little bit predatory, much less instinctive to kill other creatures, as they don't even have teeth.
If you put a male pipefish and a goldfish together, neither of them would be able to stop the goldfish. It can be said that this creature is just harmless to humans and animals, and it can't even secure its own life.
Male pipefish have a simple body structure, the most important things to them are the sensory organs, used to detect the faintest light and smells, and an underdeveloped reproductive system.
From the moment they are born, male pipefish don't hesitate to set out in search of females, which is the sole purpose of this living male.
The search for females serves two purposes: firstly, it's a way of holding on to the female's leg and trying to make a meal out of her, after all, she has no teeth, and secondly, it's a way of being able to produce offspring.
But it's not easy to find a female in the deep sea, it's like traveling in the desert, because the deep sea is vast, the density of life is very small, it's a huge dark space, it's lucky to be able to meet a fish, not to mention to meet their own partners.
And males basically don't eat after they're born, they're born with a huge liver that stores the necessary nutrients to keep them alive for months, so that means they don't stop to eat when they're looking for a female.
The sensory organs that are most important to them are now exerting sway, they are able to detect the faint pheromones of females, and their eyes are able to detect very faint light, all of which are more important information for females.
If they are lucky enough to find a female pipefish, a life of blissful softness and brutal, horrific mating awaits.
When male pipefish see a long-awaited female, their very tiny bodies make a crazy move, and they can hardly restrain themselves from stealthily stepping forward to nip at the female's body.
Is this a kiss of love? Is it a simple kiss? Is it an act of excitement at the sight of a female?
No, this bite is not a happy ending, for the female pipefish is a true monster. Because when the male pipefish's mouth bites the female;
the male's mouth becomes glued to the female and the wound slowly heals, meaning that the female slowly grows on top of her, and next thing you know, the male's head, eyes, fins, and most of his internal organs will slowly degenerate and disappear.
This is when the male becomes completely integrated with the female, becoming part of her body.
Like a small pendant on the female's body, or like a small piece of jerky growing out of the female's body, the circulatory system of the female's body will develop a permanent relationship with the male.
This is when nutrients from the female's body enter the male's body, prompting the female to develop and mature the only retained reproductive system, which is now known as the female's, and this is when the female pipefish becomes a fully hermaphroditic creature.
With two reproductive systems, the female has everything she needs to reproduce her offspring.
Because the female is so large, then one small pendant is certainly not enough for her, their body can support many males, and those males don't care how many small jerky pieces hang from one female.
As soon as they meet a female is when they come up and bite. As a result, we've found that a female can have as many as eight small jerky pieces hanging from her body. You can also assume that this female has eight dinkies and they live happily together.
This strange form of reproduction is known as sexual parasitism, which can also be referred to as sexual ****ing, and is a specific type of reproduction that is used by up to 20 species in nature.
But all of these creatures exhibit extreme dioecy, with huge differences in their physical appearance, though generally the males are large, reaching up to 60 times the size of the males, and can weigh hundreds or thousands of times as much as the males.
For a long time, people found only one sex of pipefish in their fishing operations, and thought that the creatures themselves were hermaphrodites, but finally realized that the females always had different "small pendants" hanging on their bodies, and thought that these were terrible parasites.
Finally it was realized that they were parasites, but not worms, they were males.
Looking at the male's life, we can feel that it is the evolutionary victim, their life has nothing but reproductive significance, even without tasting the food, and a short life, and in the end, can only become not an organ in someone else's body.