--- title: Female Penises on Brazilian Cave Insects Called World's First description: In what is being called the "world's first" instance of gender-reversed genitalia, scientists have found four species of insects with female “penises.” The species live in dry Brazilian caves and feed on bat guano canonical: https://time.com/68751/female-penis-found-brazilian-cave-insects/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-18T21:09:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:23:25.316Z article:section: Science og:title: Female Penises on Brazilian Cave Insects Called World's First og:description: In what is being called the "world's first" instance of gender-reversed genitalia, scientists have found four species of insects with female “penises.” The species live in dry Brazilian caves and feed on bat guano og:url: https://time.com/68751/female-penis-found-brazilian-cave-insects/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt394436373d2f17e9/69868b653bc9992dee1a3067/bug-penis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: The female penis of the Neotrogla aurora insect species is seen in an undated handout photo released April 17, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Female Penises on Brazilian Cave Insects Called World's First twitter:description: In what is being called the "world's first" instance of gender-reversed genitalia, scientists have found four species of insects with female “penises.” The species live in dry Brazilian caves and feed on bat guano twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt394436373d2f17e9/69868b653bc9992dee1a3067/bug-penis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Female 'Penis' Found on Brazilian Cave Insects > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Apr 18, 2014 9:09 PM UTC  The female penis of the Neotrogla aurora insect species is seen in an undated handout photo released April 17, 2014. The female penis of the Neotrogla aurora insect species is seen in an undated handout photo released April 17, 2014. Reuters  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Apr 18, 2014 9:09 PM UTC Scientists have [discovered](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/us-science-insect-idUSBREA3G1KJ20140417) several species of insect in a cave in Brazil that display what they say are the world’s first discovered instances of female “penises.” The four species of insect, which live in dry Brazilian caves and feed on bat guano, display something scientists are calling an “evolutionary novelty”: full-on, anatomical sex-role reversal. Though rare, instances of sex-role reversal have been found in other animals before, but this is the first time the “intromittent organ,”—the male organ—is reversed, Reuters reports. During mating, the female receives sperm by inserting a penis-like organ, which scientists call a gynosome, into the male, which they can hold in place against the male’s will. “Because the female anchoring force is very strong, a male’s strong resistance may cause damage to his genitalia,” said entomologist Kazunori Yoshizawa. “Therefore, it is very likely that entire mating processes are controlled actively by females, whereas males are rather passive.” The sex-role reversed insects, which all belong to the genus Neotragla, may be on to something—mating sessions can last from 40 to up to 70 hours long. \[[Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/us-science-insect-idUSBREA3G1KJ20140417)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/68751/female-penis-found-brazilian-cave-insects/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/68751/female-penis-found-brazilian-cave-insects/"},"headline":"Female 'Penis' Found on Brazilian Cave Insects","datePublished":"2014-04-18T21:09:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:23:25.316Z","description":"In what is being called the \"world's first\" instance of gender-reversed genitalia, scientists have found four species of insects with female “penises.” The species live in dry Brazilian caves and feed on bat guano","url":"https://time.com/68751/female-penis-found-brazilian-cave-insects/","keywords":["brazil","Insects"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt394436373d2f17e9/69868b653bc9992dee1a3067/bug-penis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt394436373d2f17e9/69868b653bc9992dee1a3067/bug-penis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The female penis of the Neotrogla aurora insect species is seen in an undated handout photo released April 17, 2014.","caption":"The female penis of the Neotrogla aurora insect species is seen in an undated handout photo released April 17, 2014.","creditText":"Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/68751/female-penis-found-brazilian-cave-insects/","name":"Female 'Penis' Found on Brazilian Cave Insects"}}]}] ```