A hermaphrodite?

There are also cotton pad mealybugs, European flat oysters, land snails, and more.

1, Cotton Cushion Mealybug

These mealybugs, named for the cotton cushion-like scales on their bodies, have been infesting orchards in California. It was only after the introduction of the Australian ladybug beetle, its natural enemy, that they were effectively controlled.

The insects don't have a mating problem because they mate on their own - a mating style that is unusual even among hermaphrodites. It is difficult to call this insect male or female because it is male and female at the same time.

These soft little creatures are the most typical hermaphrodites, taking turns in the roles of both sexes: first the male, then the female. They can do this

because they have both male and female reproductive organs inside their bodies, a process called "rhythmic serial hermaphroditism".

Flat oysters that live around Britain rotate between the sexes year after year, but those in the warmer Mediterranean Sea are able to take on both male and female roles in the same season. The European flat oyster has a very hard shell and is not easily attacked. They mate only after the full or new moon, not so much because of the spring tides as because of the sleepiness of spring.

3, land snails

This common animal is also a hermaphrodite, and its mating process is full of passion and unique romance. In winter, the snail makes holes in the ground and burrows itself into a hard shell.

When spring comes, it is well nourished and eager for a mate. The snail's male reproductive organs include a small sac filled with "love arrows," tiny bony missiles that can be fired at any time. When two affectionate snails embrace, they shoot their arrows into each other to complete the process of exchanging sperm.

4, Liver leeches

Liver leeches are parasites that are also hermaphrodites, whose eggs hatch into larvae that can lay eggs without mating. In this way, a single liver leech egg can eventually become millions of liver leeches.

Liver leeches are mainly parasitic on domestic animals, such as cattle and sheep. When cattle and sheep drink contaminated water, they come into the bodies of these animals and make their way precisely towards the liver, where they eventually settle comfortably.

5, Sea Bass

The sea bass is a very tasty fish that also undergoes a complete sex change - from a mature female to a mature male. This sex change usually takes place when the sea bass is 5 years old. There is a subspecies of sea bass called the "striped sandfish," which is abundant in Florida waters and is capable of self-fertilization.

Extended information:

Hermaphroditism is the opposite of dioecy. That is, the phenomenon in which both female and male traits are evident in a single organism.

Hermaphroditism means that an animal has glands of both sexes. It is usually referred to only in terms of normal phenomena, and is different from phenomena such as intersex and androgynous mosaicism. Plants are also hermaphroditic.

The production of two types of gametes, sperm and egg, does not necessarily mean that there are two completely opposite sexes. In fact two completely different types of reproductive cells, egg and sperm, can be produced by the same individual.

This occurs in the normal hermaphroditic species; and it is common among plants, and can be found in the lower animals of the phylum Annelida, such as worms and mollusks.

Reference: