Researchers discover how fruit flies learn to bypass already mated females
Monday, August 20, 2012 - 07:50
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org) -- Researchers have known for some time that young male fruit flies learn over time to bypass females that have already mated with someone else, but until now, no one really understood the mechanism involved. Now a team from Austria has discovered, as they write in their paper published in the journal Nature, that the when male fruit flies mate with females, they leave behind a bit of pheromone that serves as a signal to other males letting them know that further mating is futile.