By Susan Milius
Females become less picky about mates as their first reproductive peak wanes, according to a new analysis of cockroach sex. The females thus become more like their male partners, who retain a lifelong willingness to copulate with with any potential mate that moves.
Evolutionary biologist Allen J. Moore and molecular biologist Patricia J. Moore, both at the University of Manchester in England, link the females’ attitude change to the costs of delay. Females forced to wait 9 days to mate after they’ve molted into adults bear fewer young in their first clutch than roaches that mated sooner do, the scientists report in the July 31 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The late starters also have fewer young over their lifetime.