Scent of sex and death attracts virgin female beetles

For one insect, the allure of sex pheromones is not enough to attract a mate. Throw in the scent of rotting flesh, however, and the cocktail becomes irresistible.

We already know that newly hatched male hide beetles (Dermestes maculatus) are attracted by benzyl butyrate, a chemical that is released in relatively high concentrations by cadavers in the late stage of decay. Their presence is such a predictable part of the decaying process that forensic scientists use them to estimate time of death.

Less clear, though, is what attracts recently hatched, virgin females. To find out, Christian von Hoermann, a forensic entomologist at Ulm University, Germany, and his colleagues exposed virgin females to several potentially alluring scents. They found that neither the male sex pheromones nor the scent of a pig's cadaver at various stages of decay were significantly more attractive to the virgin females than the scent of a control solvent. But a combination of dead pig scent and male pheromone had the females flocking.

The behaviour makes sense: a rotting animal is the ideal place for healthy beetle larvae, and what better place to mate than the place where your kids will grow healthy and strong?

"This scent of love is an honest bouquet for the appropriate decomposition stage for larval development," says von Hoermann.

Tristram Wyatt at the University of Oxford says that similar behaviour is seen in other insects that depend on patchy resources. Once they find a suitable source of food, they release pheromones to attract suitable females, who are happy to get both food and a male at the same place. "For example, males of the scorpion fly Panorpa pheromone-call when they have an insect food item gift, while male papaya fruit flies call from fruits."

Journal reference: Frontiers in Zoology, DOI: 10.1186/1742-9994-9-18

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Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/225db1e5/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn221710Escent0Eof0Esex0Eand0Edeath0Eattracts0Evirgin0Efemale0Ebeetles0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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