MALE rove beetles () resort to stinky tricks to boost their chances of reproductive success. Each injects a smelly chemical into the female it mates with, leaving her unattractive to rival males.
Jerry Schlechter-Helas and colleagues at the University of Freiburg, Germany, identified the chemical by examining female beetles that had just mated. When the team tainted virgin females with the chemical, males spent less time in contact with them than usual (Naturwissenschaften ).
Schlechter-Helas says the females benefit from being smelly too as they are not sexually harassed by horny males once their eggs have been fertilised.
