In these organs, sperm can remain viable for weeks or months, or can be displaced by the sperm of a new suitor as the female remates.JOHN BELOTE, MOLLIE MANIER, AND SCOTT PITNICKVISUALIZING SPERM WARS Though it is difficult to see what goes on inside a female fruit
fly after copulation, recent genetic advances have allowed scientists to image sperm competition inside storage organs — the seminal receptacle and spermathecae — of female Drosophila melanogaster.
Researchers noticed, for example, that certain
flies engage in courtship displays only
after copulation has begun, perhaps as a way to get the female to favor a male's sperm over that of his competitors.