Dr. Doublemm's Maternity Ward Trivia Quiz

Answer: A tsetse fly

The tsetse fly young grows from a fertilised egg within the mother's body and will go through three larval stages here. The result is a relatively huge larva, which crawls away immediately after birth, ready to pupate. Keeping such a large larva within its body requires a lot of nutrients, and these are obtained by the mother by sucking blood.

Answer: The midwife toad

The name of this amphibian may be misleading, as it is actually the male that carries the eggs around once they are fertilised. Whereas most frogs and toads lay huge numbers of eggs into pools of water, the midwife toad lays a smaller number of eggs, but the fact that they remain with the father until hatching gives them a far greater chance of survival.

One species of this toad, the Mallorcan midwife toad, was believed to be extinct until a population was found in 1980.

Answer: The malleefowl

These birds of Southern Australia are certainly dedicated parents, and the male is vigilant with his keeping of the mound. There is also a clear intelligent logic behind the mound's construction, as the leaves it contains will usually be put down after rainfall (when possible) so as to speed up the rate of decay. This decay, along with the warmth of the sun, is what heats the mound. The male will control the temperature of the mound by kicking sand onto/off it.

The eggs of the malleefowl are very large and the chicks, once hatched, are developed enough to dig their way out.

Answer: The bitterling

The eggs are placed into the mussel using an ovipositor, which hangs from the underside of the female and which is almost the length of her entire body. The male will arrive shortly after and deposit his sperm into the same mussel.

Answer: The tarantula hawk wasp

The female tarantula hawk wasp can usually be seen eating nectar and fruit, but when it comes to laying her egg, she becomes a fearsome predator. The tarantula hawk is one of the largest wasps in the world and its sting one of the most painful. This terrific sting is put to use when tusseling with large tarantulas, which become paralysed and helpless as the parasitic wasp lays her egg.

The spider will then be buried alive.

Answer: The Darwin's frog

As an amphibian, the Darwin's frog faces the dilemma of what to do to prevent their young from drying out. Instead of laying large numbers of eggs into water, the female Darwin's frog lays just a few, which are fertilised and "swallowed" by the male after she leaves. Once the young are sufficiently developed, they enter the world via the father's mouth, giving us one of the oddest spectacles in the animal kingdom.

Answer: The cowbird

The cowbird, though unrelated to the cuckoo, shows exactly the same quality in its brood parasitism. These birds are generalists and will lay their eggs in the nests of several other species of birds. Some of these hosts are sharper than others and may notice the alien egg. If this does occur, the alien egg will be destroyed; though the cowbird may destroy the host bird's eggs in retaliation.

Answer: The paper nautilus

The paper nautilus' name is entirely down to the substance is secretes from its tentacles. The casing is "paper-thin" and forms a shell which gives this animal a nautilus-like appearance, though it is actually an octopus. The shell provides buoyancy, which means that the paper nautilus, unlike most other octopi, lives close to the surface of the water.

As a result, the egg cases are sometimes seen washing up on shores in astonishing numbers.

Answer: The sea louse

This tiny crustacean balloons out as her pregnancy progresses. The enormous number of young can be seen wriggling about within their mother through her translucent abdomen.

Answer: The Komodo dragon

The first documented example of parthenogenesis was seen in a London Zoo in 2005 and again in Chester Zoo in 2006. This had been observed in much smaller species of reptile, but never in one this size.

Interestingly, most of the young were male. This is possible as female Komodo dragons are able to provide either a Z (male) or W (female) chromosome to their offspring.