The wait can last as long as two months, but the male sand stars who lay claim to comely lasses are happy to hang on until she has fattened her womb and is ready to cut loose with an emission of fertility. A stable population lives on inexplicable portions of the sandy flat off Tanah Merah Coast, despite the shock of an oil spill and regular assaults of marine refuse. Here, they graze on detrital sediments and pair up to mount a campaign of sexual attrition. She continues to feed, while her passenger runs on reserves and loses weight where it counts. But the payoff is still enough to justify his fast, for their embrace offers a more fruitful release of seed, one that has sown their kind across the Indo-Pacific, than the semi-random broadcasts of asteroids with no taste for touch.
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