mate in Biological News

Male fish deceive rivals about their top mate choice

When competitors are around, male Atlantic mollies try to hide their top mate choice, reveals a new study published online on July 31st in Current Biology , a Cell Press journal. They feign disinterest in females after onlookers enter the scene. What's more, after encountering a rival, the tr...

More on mate tea: lower cholesterol and an international agreement

When a study in her lab showed that mate (mah tā) tea drinkers had experienced a significant increase in the activity of an enzyme that promotes HDL (good) cholesterol while lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol, University of Illinois scientist Elvira de Mejia headed for Argentina where mate tea ha...

Disease threat may change how frogs mate

Dr Amber Teacher, studying a post-doctorate at Royal Holloway, University of London, has discovered evidence that a disease may be causing a behavioural change in frogs. The research, published in the August edition of Molecular Ecology, has unearthed a surprising fact about our long-tongued fri...

Barnacles go to great lengths to mate

Compelled to mate, yet firmly attached to the rock, barnacles have evolved the longest penis of any animal for their size - up to 8 times their body length - so they can find and fertilize distant neighbours. Graduate student Christopher Neufeld and Dr. Richard Palmer from the Department of Bio...

Species still have more viable offspring if they can choose their best mate

Athens, Ga. -- When it comes to picking a mate, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young had an answer: If you cant be with the one you love, love the one youre with. As it turns out, that may be a cardinal rule in the animal kingdom, too. New research that crosses several species boundaries shows that ...

Female pronghorns choose mate based on substance as well as show

When a female animal compares males to choose a mate, she can't order a laboratory genetic screen for each suitor. Instead, she has to rely on external cues that may indicate genetic quality. Until now, biologists have focused on elaborate ornaments, such as the peacock's tail, as cues that females...

Rutgers researchers scientifically link dancing ability to mate quality

Dance has long been recognized as a signal of courtship in many animal species, including humans. Better dancers presumably attract more mates, or a more desirable mate. What's seemingly obvious in everyday life, however, has not always been rigorously verified by science. Now, a study by scienti...

A global model for the origin of species independent of geographical isolation

...ations, the genetic distance between organisms in different regions increases, the study noted. Organisms spontaneously form groups that can no longer mate resulting in a patchwork of species across the area. Thus the number of species increases rapidly until it reaches a relatively steady state. "Our...

New theory on why male, female lemurs same size

...only one day out of the entire year, the plug serves the purpose of preventing other males from mating with the female, while also freeing the male to mate with other females during the brief time they are available. "If the female has a short receptivity period, as most lemurs do, then we hypothesize ...

Spread your sperm the smart way

...rimental Biology), says: "In some species, females mate with many different males. Each male's sperm compe...ive a male is, the more females will be willing to mate with him, reducing the value of each mating to him...s of varying numbers of males and females. Females mate with many males, so males are subject to sperm com...

Male seahorses like big mates

...Wilson investigated the mating behavior of the pot-bellied seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis), concentrating on the importance of partner body size in mate selection. A total of 10 female and 16 male sexually mature seahorses, obtained from a captive breeding facility in Tasmania, took part in the experim...

Battle of the sexes benefits offspring, says research

...attern in the behaviour of all the species studied. Dr Harrison said: "In our study we found that if one parent starts slacking off or deserts, its mate works harder to bring up the brood, but not so hard as to completely compensate for their partner's laziness. "Some say that marriage is a state of...

Nematode courting caught on camera

... Researchers studying the nervous control of nematode mating behavior have produced video footage of a male worm preparing to mate with a hermaphrodite. Writing in the open access journal BMC Biology , Allyson Whittaker and Paul Sternberg from the California Institute of Technolo...

Why do we choose our mates? Ask Charles Darwin, prof says

... picky about who they mated with," Jones explains. "He discovered that birds especially females had preferences and that they did not just choose a mate randomly. He believed this is due to beauty of the plumage, that females usually selected the most colorful males. "That was an important first st...

Biologists devise unifying framework to explain evolutionary puzzles

... KNOXVILLE -- Birds are commonly thought of as being the paragon of monogamous fidelity, staying true to their mate for life. Yet, in most bird species, some nests contain offspring of individuals other than the one's tending the nest. Why would a bird invest in ...

Biologists consider unifying framework to explain evolutionary puzzles

... KNOXVILLE -- Birds are commonly thought of as being the paragon of monogamous fidelity, staying true to their mate for life. Yet, in most bird species, some nests contain offspring of individuals other than the one's tending the nest. Why would a bird invest in ...

Temporary infidelity may contribute to the stability of ancient relationships

... ants have cultivated the same fungal crops for 50 million years. Each young ant queen carries a bit of fungus garden with her when she flies away to mate and establish a new nest. Short breaks in the ants' relationship with the fungus during nest establishment may contribute to the stability of this lon...

Opposites attract -- how genetics influences humans to choose their mates

... this field since 1998, and decided to investigate mate selection in the Brazilian population, while tryin...irtual couples'. "If MHC genes did not influence mate selection", says Professor Bicalho, "we would have...ll be genetically different, and such a pattern of mate choice decreases the danger of endogamy (mating am...

UC Riverside geneticist receives highest honor from Botanical Society of America

...tential consequences of that escape. His work has shown that crops can mate with their wild relatives at rates and distances much higher than previousl... He is author also of the book Dangerous Liaisons? When Cultivated Plants mate with Their Wild Relatives (John Hopkins University Press, 2003) and is s...

Mothers give interloper's offspring a head start in life

... It has long been known that female birds commonly mate with males other than their social partner, produc... usually socially monogamous, but females commonly mate outside their pair to produce clutches with mixed ...ing are laid earlier or even why females choose to mate with extra-pair males," said Dr Magrath. One ex...

Climate change threatens Lake Baikal's unique biota

...s in the ice's transparency may also harm the Baikal seal, the lake's top predator and the world's only exclusively freshwater seal. Because the seals mate and give birth on the ice, premature melting of the ice forces them into the water before molting and drastically reduces their fertility. A warmer,...

DNA barcoding of mosquito species deployed in bid to end elephantiasis

...a microscopic, thread-like worm spread between humans through a mosquito's bite. Living within a human's blood, the worm larvae grow into adults which mate and produce other larvae, called microfilariae. Symptoms often appear years after infection. The disease can permanently damage the lymph system and ...

Is love at first sight real? Geneticists offer tantalizing clues

...that this compatibility plays an important role in mate selection, mating outcomes, and future reproductiv...s to "genetic priming," making them more likely to mate with certain males over others. "Our research ...shed light on the complex biochemistry involved in mate selection and reproduction," said Mariana Wolfner,...

Bone deformities linked to inbreeding in Isle Royale wolves

...he four wolf packs did not have any pups that survived, Vucetich reported. East Pack's numbers declined to a sole surviving female who has taken a new mate from one of the other packs. The researchers estimated the moose population at 530 this winter, a decrease from last year and not even half the av...

You don't call, you don't write: Connectivity in marine fish populations

...little empirical evidence. After about two weeks, juvenile clownfish find a comfortable-looking sea anemone, set up housekeeping, and settle in with a mate for the rest of their lives. Using a technique related to DNA fingerprinting called DNA parentage analysis, Thorrold and his colleagues studied gen...

Female mammals follow their noses to the right mates

...ine McAuliffe, whose review of evidence for female mate choice is published in the March 2009 issue of The...Biology . Historically, most examples of female mate choice and its evolutionary consequences are found...ve. Rather, they emerged because peahens prefer to mate with males that have showy plumage. Such vivid...

Female birds 'jam' their mates' flirtatious songs

...nated, and increasingly complex songs simply by avoiding overlap. "Most evidence points to vocalizations in early humans having a function in both mate attraction and resource defense, so it seems plausible that 'signal jamming' and especially 'jamming avoidance' played a role in our evolutionary hist...

Musicians have biological advantage in identifying emotion in sound

... EVANSTON, Ill. --- Looking for a mate who in everyday conversation can pick up even your most subtle emotional cues? Find a musician, Northwestern University researchers suggest. In a ...

Mating that causes injuries

...that this is the case," says Gran Arnqvist. Despite these costs, females mate with multiple males. "We also show that males with long barbs cause more...to males in their competition to be able to fertilize an egg. When females mate with two males, it is more often the male with the longer barbs that fertil...

Fruit flies sick from mating

...h findings show that if this cost were not a factor, females would produce 20 percent more offspring," says Ted Morrow. It is costly for females to mate because competition among males has led to behaviours and adaptations in males that are injurious to females, such as harassment during mating rituals...

Researchers observe evolution chain reaction

...s pomonella, continued to meet on the small, red fruit of hawthorn trees to mate and lay eggs. Then, in the mid-1800s, some of these "hawthorn flies" began to mate and lay eggs on apples instead. According to Feder, the flies attracted to ...

Biologists solve mystery of black wolves

...alue that we don't yet understand. It could be camouflage, or strengthening the immune system to combat pathogens, or it could reflect a preference to mate with individuals of a different coat color." Does this research have implications beyond dogs and wolves? "The underlying assumption is th...

Early whales gave birth on land

...whales' big teeth, well-suited for catching and eating fish, suggest the animals made their living in the sea, probably coming onto land only to rest, mate and give birth, said Gingerich. Like other primitive archaeocetes, Maiacetus had four legs modified for foot-powered swimming, and although these ...

Early whales gave birth on land, fossil find reveals

...hales' big teeth, well-suited for catching and eating fish, suggest the animals made their livings in the sea, probably coming onto land only to rest, mate and give birth, said Gingerich, who is the Ermine Cowles Case Collegiate Professor of Paleontology and director of the U-M Museum of Paleontology. Lik...

The more promiscuous the female, the speedier the sperm

... sperm of many species of African cichlids. These fish have extremely diverse mating behaviours, ranging from strict monogamy to species where females mate with many males in quick succession. "In promiscuous species we found that males produced larger and faster sperm than in closely related species ...

Why you can't hurry love

... female is able to reduce the chance that she will mate with a bad male. A male's willingness to court for...w, males are not all equal. A female would like to mate with a good male, but cannot tell a male's type fr...mes into play. A male is assumed to always want to mate with a female, but a good male is more willing to ...

Why the swamp sparrow is hitting the high notes

...er across the Eastern and Central North American wetlands. This small songbird with a grey face and reddish wings defends his territory and attracts a mate usually by singing from a raised perch in a brushy swamp. Results from research on birdsong can be extrapolated to other areas of study, including t...

Purdue study suggests warmer temperatures could lead to a boom in corn pests

...benefit these pests. An effectively longer season, or more days exceeding their minimum temperature range, provides them with additional time to feed, mate and reproduce." The corn earworm is of particular concern because it is migratory and pesticide resistant, he said. "The corn earworm is an esta...

Immunity stronger at night than during day

...ian rhythm paces the human body as well as the fruit fly through its days and nights, setting the rest/activity cycle that cues when to eat, sleep and mate over a 24-hour cycle. In phagocytosis, the innate immune response targeted by the Stanford researchers, specific immune cells engulf and destroy th...

In the animal world, bigger isn't necessarily better

...ration process, they were unable to search for and mate with females and produce offspring at the same rat...ler males develop sooner and are therefore able to mate with females before the larger males. So while lar...able to compete with the smaller males in terms of mate searching." The study, currently published onli...