A new study not only confirmed the existence of cockroaches that don't likesugar, but also
When a male cockroach really wants to mate with a female, he movesHis ass to her, opens her wings and offers "homemade food" – sugarWhile the female is eating, the male snuggles up to her, delivering the bagwith sperm.
Back in 1993, scientists at North Carolina State University discovered one feature in the red cockroach – they were not attached to a form of sugar called glucose.
And it looks like we created them by accident, afterdecades of trying to kill their ancestors with sugary powders and poisonous liquids. Cockroaches that were craving sugar ate the poison and died, while cockroaches less addicted to glucose avoided the death traps and survived long enough to reproduce, passing this trait on to the next generation of cockroaches.
Now, according to a study publishedAccording to the journal Communications Biology, the same trait that may help a female cockroach avoid sweet-tasting poisonous baits also makes her less likely to stay and mate with normal male cockroaches.
This is because the cockroach's saliva is able to quickly break down complex sugars, such as those found in male courtship, and convert them into simple sugars such as glucose.So when one of these glucose-averse females bites offof the male's mating gift, it literally becomes bitter in her mouth and she runs away before the male canComplete your "maneuver".
In laboratory experiments, Dr. Wada-Katsumata and her colleagues have shown that glucose-intolerant females are more fearful of males than wild-type cockroaches, as the researchers call themHowever, they also found that males with a glucose aversion seemed to compensateThis is a quicker transition to reproduction after offering your gift.