Reversal of sex roles in nuptial feeding

Female Zeus bugs subvert the traditional notion that amorous gifts are a male preserve.

Abstract

Males of many animals provide females with 'nuptial gifts', such as prey items or glandular secretions, during courtship and mating¹. Traditionally, nuptial feeding is viewed as a form of paternal investment in offspring^2,3,4. Although other explanations have been proposed^5,6,7, the focus remains gender-specific, with a male donor and female recipient. Here we show that females of the extraordinary insect Phoreticovelia disparata provide food for males during mating. This previously undescribed reversal of gender roles indicates that nuptial feeding might not be related to paternal investment.