Lack of sleep is not necessarily fatal for flies

Male flies kept awake do not die earlier than those allowed to sleep, leading researchers to question whether sleep, in flies at least, is essential for staying alive.

X chromosome not the reason for sex differences in lifespan

The shorter average lifespan of males compared to females appears not to be a result of the fact that males have only one X chromosome. This is the conclusion from a research study on fruit flies at Linköping University, ...

Dietary restriction and life span in male and hermaphrodite worms

An organism's lifespan is known to be affected by its sex and diet, but where these two factors overlap biologically is not well understood. Researchers in Japan looked for clues in worms—C. elegans—that have two sexes: ...

'Paranoia' about rivals alters insect mating behavior

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that male fruitflies experience a type of 'paranoia' in the presence of another male, which doubles the length of time they mate with a female, despite the female of the ...

Inbreeding insects cast light on longer female lifespans

Inbreeding can unexpectedly extend male lifespan. Insect experiments described in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology have shown that, in seed beetles, inbreeding causes males to live longer, while shortening ...