Who knew Madonna's 'Material Girl' video could be so right? New Scientist Magazine!
Apparently, as long as animal courtship has taken place, males haven given gifts to females to seduce them.
But New Scientist wanted to know why do some individuals hand over valuable presents while others get away with common tat?
"For instance, males of some fly species either present females with hard-won edible insects, or inedible seeds or twigs. Some even do both.
The evolutionary benefits of giving gifts that boost reproductive success, such as food, may seem obvious. But Natasha LeBas of the University of St Andrews in Scotland and colleagues believe worthless gifts also give males a selective advantage by reducing the investment they must make to reproduce.
They studied male dance flies mating on Scottish farmland. The researchers replaced the insect gifts being offered with cotton balls - and discovered the cotton-bearing males managed to copulate for just as long . "Selection does seem to act strongly on the males that reduce their investment," LeBas told New Scientist, since this group of flies have evolved several fake gift strategies"Now you know. Whether you show up with the $70.00 'Crazy for you' bear or a limp daisy and a bad poem, the chicks will dig you. If you're a fly.
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