Study shows female insects prefer 'hot' males

London, May 19 (ANI): A new imaging study has shown that female damselflies prefer 'hot' males.

Scientists found that males that warm their bodies by flying in the sun are indeed 'hot stuff' and attract more females.

They say that hot-bodied males may benefit females by having access to the warmest territories, which in turn are optimal sites to lay eggs.

In order to attract females, some male damselflies perform intricate courtship displays, using specialised wings to fly at high speeds.

This courtship display can indicate to females the quality of the male damselfly and potentially the quality of the territory he defends.

Now, new filming techniques have helped reveal a previously unknown aspect to the mating behaviour of Japanese damselflies (Mnais costalis), that are endemic to Japan, living along fast-flowing mountain streams.

"The key approach was to combine two technologies that have become cheap enough to use in the field," the BBC quoted Professor Michael Siva-Jothy from the University of Sheffield, UK, who undertook the study with Professor Yoshitaka Tsubaki and Dr Yuka Samejima from Kyoto University, Shiga, Japan, as saying.

The study is published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. (ANI)