Sensory exploitation as an evolutionary origin to nuptial food gifts in insects

Nuptial food gifts given by males to females at mating are widespread in in sects, but their evolutionary origin remains obscure. Such gifts may arise as a form of sensory trap that exploits the normal gustatory responses of f emales, favouring the selective retention of sperm of gift-giving males. I tested this hypothesis by offering foreign food gifts, synthesized by males of one cricket species, to females of three non-gift-giving species. Femal es provisioned with novel food gifts were 'fooled' into accepting more sper m than they otherwise would in the absence of a gift. These results support the hypothesis that nuptial food gifts and post-copulatory female mating p references coevolve through a unique form of sensory exploitation.