A Comparison of Female Postcopulatory Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila biarmipes

The postcopulatory behavior of Drosophila biarmipes and Drosophila melanogaster females was analyzed and compared. Females from both species were shown to undergo a series of behavioral changes following mating, including significant reductions in both sexual attractiveness and receptivity. However, while both attractiveness and receptivity returned to “virgin-like” levels within a few days in D. melanogaster, D. biarmipes females, which regained their sexual attractiveness within a few days, remained unreceptive to copulation for at least 2 weeks. With respect to fecundity, D. melanogaster females produced more offspring when given opportunities to remate, while D. biarmipes females did not benefit from remating opportunities. These observations suggest that D. biarmipes females may have the ability to store sperm and produce offspring from a single mating over longer periods of time than other drosophilids.