Fruit fly sperm compels females to do housework after sex session
September 30th, 2009 - 1:43 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Sept 30 (ANI): After sex, female fruit flies ditch the usual siesta in favour of extra foraging and searching for places to lay her eggs, a new study has found.
The study showed that it is all down to a chemical or ’sex peptide’ produced by male fruit flies.
The sperm of male fruit flies are coated with the chemical, which inhibits the female’s usual afternoon siesta and compels her into an intense period of foraging activity.
Both male and female fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) - commonly seen hovering around rotting fruit and vegetables - are active at dawn and dusk, and have a deep sleep at night.
They also exhibit a marked ‘resting state’ during the afternoon, which Isaac likens to a siesta that conserves the fly’s energy and reduces damaging exposure to the sun during hot afternoons.
“However, we noted that after mating, females still slept deeply at night, but ditched the usual siesta in favour of extra foraging and searching for places to lay her eggs,” said Professor Elwyn Isaac from the University of Leeds’ Faculty of Biological Sciences.
“This behaviour lasts for around eight days - and our research findings suggest that this change is not by choice. Females who mated with males that produced sperm without the sex peptide continued to take their siesta. So we’re certain that this change of behaviour is chemically induced by the male.
“Sleep is an ancient and essential mechanism in living creatures from worms to humans, so to inhibit this for such a long period and replace it with extra activity that exposes the female to environmental hazards and danger from predators must require a powerful mechanism,” he added.
The sex peptide is produced in the males’ accessory glands and attaches itself to the surface of the sperm’s tail.
Previous studies have shown that the sex peptide encourages females to increase egg production - a mated female will lay up to 100 eggs a day compared with 1-2 eggs laid by a virgin female. It also inhibits her from mating with other males for around a week to ten days.
“It would appear that preventing sleep and inducing extra domestic-type duties to prepare for the birth of offspring in females is a further tactic used by the male to ensure successful paternity after mating,” Isaac said. (ANI)
- Fly sperm force females to do housework post sex - Nov 28, 2009
- Study could lead to new ways of curtailing reproduction in harmful insects - Feb 27, 2011
- Male animals can 'smell' whether a potential partner is a virgin or not - Feb 13, 2011
- Chemistry of mosquito sex could be key to controlling dengue fever - Mar 20, 2011
- X-rated worm tapes reveal how sex shapes sperm - Jan 11, 2011
- Wingless female fireflies get less support from mates - Apr 06, 2011
- Eggs that bounce like rubber hit China markets - Feb 10, 2012
- How male spiders try to trick females into sex - Nov 14, 2011
- Production of sperm may lower immunity - Jan 31, 2012
- Scientists find female frogs call out during sex to excite lover - Apr 30, 2011
- Why some termites become queens and others don't - Jul 09, 2010
- Snails opt for single parenthood when they smell predators - Aug 17, 2010
- 160mn-yr-old pterodactyl fossil solves dino sex riddle - Jan 21, 2011
- Pterosaur males used their head crests to woo ladies - Jan 21, 2011
- Male wolf spiders 'mate with virgins and cannibalise older females' - Apr 13, 2011
Tags: afternoon siesta, biological sciences, choice females, dawn and dusk, deep sleep, egg production, eight days, elwyn, environmental hazards, fruit and vegetables, fruit fly, glands, housework, intense period, male fruit, peptide, research findings, sex female, sleep at night, university of leeds