Male fruit flies drink more alcohol to get females to like them

Male fruit flies drink more alcohol to get females to like them

Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) are tremendously fond of fermented foodstuffs. Technically, it's the yeast they crave, produced by yummy rotting fruit, but they can consume quite a lot of ethanol as a result of that fruity diet. Yes, fruit flies have ultra-fast metabolisms, the better to burn off the booze, but they can still get falling-down drunk—so much so, that randy inebriated male fruit flies have been known to court other males by m…

According to a recent study, alcohol increases the release of pheromones in male fruit flies, which helps them find females for mating.

The relationship between alcohol and sex is controversial. A little can help to disinhibit themselves, but crossing the line is a guarantee of failure. Fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster , happen something similar. These insects abound in garbage cans in summer and appear as by magic in our kitchens when it is hot, attracted by the smell of the fruit that starts to rot. The reason is that those pieces about to be discarded contain significant …

When fruit fly males consume alcohol, their mating success increases: a new study comes to this astounding result – and it also provides the reason.

Alcohol drinking makes male fruit flies more attractive

Alcohol increases the release of chemical sex signals and makes males more attractive to females.

Alcohol makes male fruit flies more attractive to females by boosting sex pheromones, researchers find

A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has investigated why the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster drinks alcohol and has shown that alcohol has a direct and positive effect on the mating success of male flies. This effect is due to the increased production of sex pheromones after alcohol consumption, which makes males that have consumed alcohol more attractive to females.