LAMPREYS certainly wouldn鈥檛 win any awards for charm. These eel-like parasites use their big sucker mouths to latch onto prey fish and suck their blood. Now it turns out that when they want to attract a mate, they bring out the bile.
Researchers have found that male lampreys lure females over great distances by releasing bile acid, which acts as a potent pheromone (Science, vol 296, p 138). Weiming Li of Michigan State University, who purified the pheromone, says it could be useful one day to decoy lampreys away from areas where they are threatening other fish populations.