Mate-copying for a costly variant in Drosophila melanogaster females

Mate-copying is a form of social learning in which witnessing sexual interactions between conspecifics biases an observer female's future mate-choice. We show in the fruit fly that females of either the Curly-wing (Cy) or the wild-type (WT) phenotype, after observing another female preferring to copulate with a fitness-lowering Cy male over a WT male, increased their preference for the usually nonpreferred Cy phenotype. Thus, mate-copying also exists for costly variants in invertebrates.