Why Nature Prefers a Small Man to Mate with a Big Woman If you
watch enough TV, you get the idea that the ideal mating
combination is a skinny little woman and a burly man. But a new
evolutionary study published in American Naturalist shows that's
not what nature intended. In fact, the humble New Zealand weta
(a relative of the cricket) demonstrates that evolution often
pushes in the other direction: Only the smallest and most nimble
weta males get to score with the sexy weta ladies who are twice
their size. How could tiny males impress the weta females? Among
these hopping insects, it's not uncommon for the males to travel
up to 90 meters per night searching for a mate, which would be
the equivalent of a human man walking 7 kilometers per night in
search of a lady friend. Size does matter among the weta — it's
just that being lightweight allows the male to show off his
walking prowess much better than a large body would. Female
wetas tend to walk much less, and when they do find a little
male they like, they