Abstract
Female resistance to male mating is thought to have developed as a mechanism to avoid multiple matings or to allow the choice of good quality males. Detailed mating behavior of the Japanese horned beetle Trypoxylus dichotomus septentrionalis (Kono) was examined under natural conditions to clarify the function of female resistance to mating. When a male recognized the presence of a female at the same feeding spot, it immediately began to court and mount the female and attempted to insert its genitalia. During the courtship, females performed intense resistance behavior against the mating, regardless of whether the female would eventually accept males or not. In T. dichotomus septentrionalis, it was observed that female resistance to mating did not occur for reasons of precopulatory mate choice or avoidance of multiple matings; however, additional studies on postcopulatory mate choice are needed. After copulation, males usually tried to keep females away from the sap site. Because of males' excluding behavior, females were able to stay at the sap site for feeding only when they were resisting or copulating. Females that showed resistance behavior before copulation stayed at the sap site 1.56 times longer than females that did not show the resistance behavior. Female resistance behavior in T. dichotomus septentrionalis is thus considered a tactic for prolonging their feeding duration, which is reduced by male-excluding behavior after mating.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Dr. Akira Mori, the two reviewers, and Mr. Koh Mochizuki for their valuable comments on the manuscript. I am also grateful to Dr. Noriyoshi Sato and Dr. Tasuku Kitamura for their assistance in field observations and to Editage (English language editing company) for assistance in correcting the language of this manuscript. The field study was conducted with the permission of the Kamigamo Experimental Station of Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University. This study was supported in part by grants for the Biodiversity Research of the 21st Century COE (A14) and the Global COE Program (A06) to Kyoto University.
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Hongo, Y. Mating interaction of the Japanese horned beetle Trypoxylus dichotomus septentrionalis: does male-excluding behavior induce female resistance?. acta ethol 15, 195–201 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-012-0128-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-012-0128-y