In the summer of 2019, I landed a spot in the Brodie Lab (University of Virginia), where I delved into a study on female choice in the forked fungus beetle, Bolitotherus cornutus (Panzer). This NSF-funded REU program at the Mountain Lake Biological Station provided me with the chance to work alongside Dr. Liza Mitchem and Prof. Dr. Edmund D. Brodie III, who provided excellent support in designing my research project. Copulation in B. cornutus requires female cooperation, which means that females can choose from a range of potential mates in different social contexts. And that's where the real magic began! I began to wonder if chemical cues influenced female choice in my study system. Through behavioral trials, our study showed that female beetles recognized substrate-borne chemical cues of males, and exhibited a slight, yet non-significant preference for non-aggressive, subordinate males before competition. After the competition, however, they switched their choice to the dominant males who had emerged victorious. This novel finding provides the first evidence of change in female preference based on the outcome of male-male competition. You can read all about it in the published work linked here!