WEDNESDAY, Jan. 26, 2005 (HealthDayNews) -- Crickets may help explain why women often seem to fall for attractive men who offer little more than their good genes, says an Australian study in the online journal PLoS Biology.
The University of New South Wales study noted that females typically incur more survival costs than males in rearing offspring. That's especially true when females pair up with flashy mates.
The researchers analyzed the costs and benefits of mating to female crickets and their offspring. The researchers found that the females' costs of mating with attractive males may be balanced or outweighed by the indirect benefits to the species.
Female crickets who mated with "attractive" male crickets produced daughters that laid more eggs and sons that were more attractive, compared with the offspring of female crickets who mated with "unattractive" males.
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