ArticleBiology letters2018
Sexual attractiveness and reproductive performance in ageing females of a coccoid insect.
Article in Biology letters, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Age-dependent mating dynamics, body size, and sex ratio in colonisedCurrent research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2026Article
- Genetic variation in age-dependent attractiveness in a fish with a mixed mating system.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Sexual attractiveness and reproductive performance in ageing females of a coccoid insect.Biology letters · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Female age strongly influences reproductive success in various animals. Males are, therefore, expected to show preferential responses to sexual signals released from females of ages suitable for reproduction. Here, however, we report an unexpected and contradictory effect of ageing on sexual attractiveness and reproductive performance in a coccoid insect: the pheromone-based attractiveness of females increased with ageing, though their reproductive performance was in rapid decline. Surprisingly, senescent females continued releasing relatively high amounts of pheromone and maintained their sexual attractiveness, even at ages when they had almost completely lost fertility, with reduced densities of endosymbionts to support their physiology. Our dataset suggests a potential sexual conflict within a pheromone communication system, where females benefit at males' expense through deceptive signals of fertility.
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