A new appreciation of how beetles appreciate fluids:
“Female Callosobruchus Maculatus Mate When They are Thirsty: Resource-rich Ejaculates as Mating Effort in a Beetle,” Martin Edvardsson, Animal Behaviour, vol. 74, no. 2, August 2007, pp. 183-8. (Thanks to Kit Howard for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Uppsala University and the University of Exeter in Cornwall, report:
“Females of the bruchid beetle Callosobruchus maculatus are harmed by the spiny male genitalia during copulation but also appear to derive material benefits from the large ejaculates. I kept female C. maculatus with access to water and other females without access to water. All females were given the opportunity to mate with a new male every day. Females without access to water mated more frequently than females with access to water. I suggest that female C. maculatus mate more frequently to obtain water when dehydrated and that this may select for ejaculates containing large amounts of water in males.”