Females in the blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans) occur in three different inherited color forms: green, red, and blue, with the blue form looking confusingly similar to males, perhaps to avoid repeated excessive sexual harassment. By dusting the males with a fluorescent powder, the authors monitored both the intensity of male mating harassment and the number of matings of the three female forms. The avoidance through male mimicry only seems to benefit the females when their “more attractive” sisters are at higher densities.

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"Are Parasites To Thank for Sex?" July 8, 2009
The Maintenance of Sex, Clonal Dynamics, and Host-Parasite Coevolution in a Mixed Population of Sexual and Asexual Snails
Jukka Jokela, Mark F. Dybdahl, and Curtis M. Lively
A study in the journal The American Naturalist implies that parasites helped drive the development of sex, because the shuffling of genes gives sex-produced progeny an advantage over asexual genetic clones. Cynthia Graber reports.

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"On the Road to a New Species" June 15, 2009
Difference in Plumage Color Used in Species Recognition between Incipient Species Is Linked to a Single Amino Acid Substitution in the Melanocortin‐1 Receptor
J. Albert C. Uy, Robert G. Moyle, Christopher E. Filardi, and Zachary A. Cheviron, Associate Editor: Ben C. Sheldon, Editor: Monica A. Geber
Next, the researchers evaluated whether this color change might make any difference to the birds. They put stuffed birds of either color into the territories of live flycatchers. Flycatchers are not bothered by most foreign birds, but they will attack potential rivals of the same species. Black bird decoys drew angry responses from black birds but little reaction from brown-belly birds and vice versa, Uy and his colleagues report in the August issue of The American Naturalist.