Oleic acid is a precursor of linoleic acid and the male sex pheromone in Nasonia vitripennis.

Linoleic acid (C18:2(Δ9,12), LA) is crucial for many cell functions in organisms. It has long been a paradigm that animals are unable to synthesize LA from oleic acid (C18:1(Δ9), OA) because they were thought to miss Δ(12)-desaturases for inserting a double bound at the Δ(12)-position. Today it is clear that this is not true for all animals because some insects and other invertebrates have been demonstrated to synthesize LA.

How parasitoid females produce sexy sons: a causal link between oviposition preference, dietary lipids and mate choice in Nasonia.

Sexual selection theory predicts that phenotypic traits used to choose a mate should reflect honestly the quality of the sender and thus, are often costly. Physiological costs arise if a signal depends on limited nutritional resources. Hence, the nutritional condition of an organism should determine both its quality as a potential mate and its ability to advertise this quality to the choosing sex.