Summary: Burgevin et al. (2013)

 The observation of same-sex sexual behaviour is common and taxonomically widespread. It is particularly observed in the insects, including the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. While the focus of most research efforts have been on male-male same sex behaviour, some studies have started to investigate female-female same sex behaviour. The current theory behind male-male same sex behaviour is that the males accrue benefits associated with high mating rate, but that males are also poorly adept at discriminating between the sexes. This cannot explain female-female same behaviour as females do not typically mount males when mating. Burgevin et al. (2013) used a full-sib design and found that variation in male-male mount in the seed beetle explained a high proportion of the variation in female-female mounting behaviour, indicating an intersexual correlation. Their findings did not support that same-sex behaviour is related to activity or was costly for females. Burgevin et al. (2013) suggest that, at least for seed beetles, female-female same sex behaviour carries only a low cost and is maintained via selection on males in the population.