Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Published September 19, 2018 (Brief from the Royal Society)
When researchers monitored physical models of female dance flies adorned with the species’ exclusively female sexual ornaments — swollen bodies and hairy legs — they found male flies like both large bodies and hairy legs, but prefer large bodies. Inflatable sacs might be a newer evolutionary innovation, and males may be more attracted to the trait’s novelty.
Lead author: Rosalind Murray, University of Toronto – rosalind.murray@utoronto.ca