news and views effect’, could allow males with the same kin-recognition mechanism, particularly father to recognize one another, whether among species in which social learning is an they were reared together or apart, as often inadequate or misleading guide to related- occurs in species where males mate with ness. I many females. Paul W. Sherman is in the Department of I believe that this is the most likely ex- Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, 100 YEARS AGO planation. However, confirmation requires Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. Many observers in different countries, identifying what heritable cues males use e-mail:
[email protected] noticing the fact that malaria is most (for example, calls, plumage or odour), alter- 1. Höglund, J., Alatalo, R. V., Lundberg, A., Rintamäki, P. T. & prevalent at the most active period of ing them experimentally, and observing Lindell, J. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 266, 813–816 (1999). mosquito life, have attributed malaria to the 2. Petrie, M., Krupa, A. & Burke, T. Nature 401, 155–157 (1999). whether manipulated males indeed prefer 3. Höglund, J. & Alatalo, R. V. Leks (Princeton Univ. Press, 1995). agency of this insect. Dr. Patrick Manson, in similar but unrelated lek-partners. 4. Deutsch, J. C. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 34, 451–459 (1994). 2 1894, first brought the subject forward in Petrie and colleagues’ results are impor- 5. Widemo, F. & Owens, I. P. F. Nature 373, 148–151 (1995). England … . Bignami and Bastianelli, who tant for several reasons. First, they (and 6. Watts, C. R. & Stokes, A. W. Sci. Am. 224, 112–118 (1971).