what is the difference between copulation,mating and coitus?

Icecream: what is the difference between copulation,mating and coitus?
please no dirty answers

Answers and Views:

Answer by the kid
nothing really.

Answer by Cal King
Copulation and coitus both refer to the physical contact of the genitalia in species in which such contact and concomittant transfer of sperm is necessary for the males and females to reproducce sexually. In some species, no such contact is necessary but they nevertheless are mating. A male European newt, for example, may fan its tail to send phermones to the female without touching her. If she responds with the appropriate behavior, he then continues to dance until he deposits a spermatophore. The female then follows his movements, and he leads her to the spermatophore so she can pick it up with her cloacal lips. Fertilization is internal, but there is no contact between the male and female’s cloaca. They are mating but not copulating or in coitus. In birds, copulation or coitus involves the lining up of their cloacal openings, after which sperm is squirted by the male inside the female’s body through her cloacal opening. Most birds do not have a copulatory organ nor is one necessary to copulate or be in coitus.

Therefore, animals can mate with or without copulation or coitus, and coitus or copulation can occur with or without a penis. Some animals, such as shellfish or coral, merely release clouds of sperms and eggs into the open water so that the eggs can be fertilized without the male and female ever being close to each other. They are still mating, but they never even meet their mates. In some all female, asexually reproducing animals, such as whiptail lizards, males are not needed for reproduction nor do they exist, but another individual is needed to act the part of a male partner to stimulate ovulation and parthenogenesis. In such cases, one female may go through the mating ritual, short of copulation since female lizards have no hemipenis, in order for another female to reproduce successfully. Such female-female mating rituals are not copulation nor coitus, but they are needed for asexual reproduction to initiate.