Cryptic female choice in response to male pheromones in Drosophila melanogaster.

Females control the paternity of their offspring by selectively mating with males they perceive to be of high quality. In species where females mate with multiple males in succession, females may bias offspring paternity by favoring the sperm of one male over another, a process known as cryptic female choice. While evidence of cryptic female choice exists in multiple taxa, the mechanisms underlying this process have remained difficult to unravel.