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Published online 3 January 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2007.402
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Drunken flies get hypersexual
Chronic boozing sends male flies chasing after any and every potential mate.
From the annals of insect biology comes a cautionary tale for those recovering from their post-New Year’s celebration: heavy boozing has been shown to send male fruitflies, like their human counterparts, into a lusty fog.
In the flies, hypersexuality caused by chronic alcohol exposure has the effect of making the males chase anything with wings — other males included.
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I can recall effect of alcohol effect in humans- Alcohol increases the libido but removes the performance. But fruit flies are lucky to have performance too....
"In contrast, alcohol had little effect on mating in female fruitflies, which normally do not court their mates." This gender difference makes me wonder. What's the difference in the brain bewteen men and women? May not be just dopamine. The level of estrogen? Whatever it is, if we know the answer, we can cure lusty men who like to be drunken.
I don't think that Han et al's research necessarily shows that flies get more randy when drunk, merely that they become less able to distinguish between males and females. About 25 years ago I did some research on the related genus Zaprionus. In this genus, males signal their sex to other males with a male-specific "song" produced by wing vibration. I found that I could get chains of amorous males trying to mate with each other, by the simple expedient of cutting their wings off so they couldn't sing.