Virgin females were receptive to courting males and readily mated, but females flies who had mated lost interest in sex for a time because of sex peptide, a substance that males inject with sperm during the encounter.
Rejected males then stopped trying to mate, even when placed in the same cage as virgin flies.
But when they were placed by themselves in another container that had two straws - one containing plain food and the other containing food with 15 per cent alcohol - the rejected males binged on the alcohol.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-16/sex-starved-flies-hitting-the-bottle/3893982?WT.svl=news5
Rejected males then stopped trying to mate, even when placed in the same cage as virgin flies.
But when they were placed by themselves in another container that had two straws - one containing plain food and the other containing food with 15 per cent alcohol - the rejected males binged on the alcohol.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-16/sex-starved-flies-hitting-the-bottle/3893982?WT.svl=news5