When death is near, the future no longer matters; the present is all that needs attention. It’s akin to a shirt with the phrase: “I am dying of cancer. Please sleep with me.“
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Tenebrio molitor Beetle |
Recently, biologist Ben Sadd at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, discovered something similar in the Tenebrio molitor beetle. If their immune system is ravaged to the point where the organism may die, they will redirect their final resources towards producing sexual pheromones.
Sadd compromised the immune systems of 20 virgin male beetles by inserting a piece of nylon into their bodies and then housed these compromised beetles alongside healthy ones in different areas. He then recorded which area attracted females the most.
The result was that females spent more time at the dish with the males whose immune systems were threatened, as these males had invested their final efforts into producing sex pheromones to attract females. “The scent of dying males is much more attractive than that of healthy ones,” Sadd noted.
M.T. (according to Newscientist)
