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MONDAY, July 28, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Here's a great deal for a guy: free food, free transportation and unlimited sex with your female partner.
There's just one catch. You have to be a Zeus bug, a tiny water insect found along Australia's east coast.
Australian and Swedish researchers say female Zeus bugs do all this for their male partners. It's the first time that scientists have observed this kind of behavior in female creatures, says the study in the current issue of Nature.
In most species, males have to court their potential mates by bringing food or other gifts. The males often have to risk life and limb for the chance to pass their genes to the next generation.
And most female animals are quite selective about their mates, giving the nod only to the premier males who will ensure an adequate food supply and the highest quality genes.
But a female Zeus bug places no such demands on her suitor. About half the size of the female, the male Zeus bug piggybacks on his partner, dining on a never-ending protein wax the female secretes from a gland near her head. Sex is the only thing required of the male.
"The male can ride the female, feeding and mating for up to a week. The female usually produces the wax feed when a male is riding her, and she will continue to produce it for as long as the male remains. Yet once deposited, his sperm will allow her to continually produce batches of fertile eggs for up to two weeks," researcher Mark Elgar of the University of Melbourne says in a news release.
He and his colleagues aren't sure why female Zeus bugs indulge their mates this way. They speculate the female expends less energy than if she tried to give the heave-ho to the male after he deposited his sperm, only to have another male try to hitch a free ride.
"A constant stream of suitors wanting to participate in a polygamous free-for-all could possibly lead to greater harassment, leading to the female expending more energy and placing herself at greater risk of harm than if she doted on just the one male," Elgar explains.
This finding about the mating behavior of the Zeus bug offers a new perspective on the evolution and maintenance of mating behaviors.
More information
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