Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T08:18:30.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Multiple mating, prolonged copulation and male substance in a scarab beetle Dasylepida ishigakiensis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2010

Ken-ichi Harano
Affiliation:
Kebuka Project Team, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences at Ohwashi (NIASO), Tsukuba, Ibaraki305-8634, Japan
Seiji Tanaka*
Affiliation:
Kebuka Project Team, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences at Ohwashi (NIASO), Tsukuba, Ibaraki305-8634, Japan
Hiroe Yasui
Affiliation:
Kebuka Project Team, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences at Ohwashi (NIASO), Tsukuba, Ibaraki305-8634, Japan
Sadao Wakamura
Affiliation:
Kebuka Project Team, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences at Ohwashi (NIASO), Tsukuba, Ibaraki305-8634, Japan
Atsushi Nagayama
Affiliation:
Okinawa Prefectural Agricultural Research Centre (OPARC), Itoman, Okinawa901-0336, Japan
Yasuhiro Hokama
Affiliation:
Okinawa Prefectural Agricultural Research Centre (OPARC), Itoman, Okinawa901-0336, Japan
Norio Arakaki
Affiliation:
Okinawa Prefectural Agricultural Research Centre (OPARC), Itoman, Okinawa901-0336, Japan
*
Get access

Abstract

Field and laboratory observations were carried out to understand the significance of prolonged copulation and the male substance transferred from males to females in the white grub beetle Dasylepida ishigakiensis Niijima & Kinoshita. Adults emerged from the soil in the evening and formed mating pairs on sugarcane plants, where copulation lasted for 1–3 h. Mating pairs (30%) observed in the field were accompanied by one or two additional males. Some females mated with one such male after ending copulation with the first male, showing multiple mating. After mating, males dropped to the ground to burrow into the soil earlier than females. Females received a large amount of colloidal secretion from males during mating. The amount and rate of transfer of this secretion from males to females were investigated in this study. Transfer of the secretion from males to females was completed within 30 min, and females that had mated with two males in the laboratory stored a larger amount of male secretion in the bursa copulatrix than those that had mated once. The results of both field and laboratory observations might indicate a possibility that prolonged copulation serves as a post-insemination female guarding behaviour to prevent mating by other conspecific males.

Type
Research Paper
Copyright
Copyright © ICIPE 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcock, J. (1994) Post-insemination associations between males and females in insects: the mate-guarding hypothesis. Annual Review of Entomology 39, 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arakaki, N., Sadoyama, Y., Kishita, M., Nagayama, A., Oyafuso, A., Ishimine, M., Ota, M., Akino, T., Fukaya, M., Hirai, Y., Yamamura, K. and Wakamura, S. (2004) Mating behavior of the scarab beetles Dasylepida ishigakiensis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Applied Entomology and Zoology 39, 669674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, T., Hutchings, J. and Partridge, L. (1993) No reduction in the cost of mating for Drosophila melanogaster females mating with spermless males. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 253, 211217.Google ScholarPubMed
Chapman, T., Liddle, L. F., Kalb, J. M., Wolfner, M. F. and Partridge, L. (1995) Cost of mating in Drosophila melanogaster females is mediated by male accessory gland products. Nature 373, 241244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cordero, A. (1990) The adaptive significance of the prolonged copulations of the damselfly, Ischnura graellsii (Odonata: Coenagrionidae). Animal Behaviour 40, 4348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, J. L. (1997) Multiple mating, sperm competition, and cryptic female choice in the leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), pp. 164183. In The Evolution of Mating Systems in Insects and Arachnids (edited by Choe, J. C. and Crespi, B. J.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, K. and Partridge, L. (1989) A cost of mating in female fruit flies. Nature 338, 760761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukaya, M., Yasui, H., Akino, T., Yasuda, T., Tanaka, S., Wakamura, S., Maeda, T., Hirai, Y., Yasuda, K., Nagayama, A. and Arakaki, N. (2009) Environmental and pheromonal control of precopulatory behavior for synchronized mating in the white grub beetle, Dasylepida ishigakiensis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Applied Entomology and Zoology 44, 223229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillott, C. (2003) Male accessory gland secretions: modulators of female reproductive physiology and behavior. Annual Review of Entomology 48, 163184.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayashi, F. and Kamimura, Y. (2002) The potential for incorporation of male derived proteins into developing eggs in the leafhopper Bothrogonia ferruginea. Journal of Insect Physiology 48, 153159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hunter-Jones, P. (1957) An albino strain of the desert locust. Nature 180, 236237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter-Jones, P. (1960) Fertilization of eggs of the desert locust by spermatozoa from successive copulations. Nature 185, 336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLain, D. K. (1980) Female choice and the adaptive significance of prolonged copulation in Nezara viridula (Hemiptera: Pentatonidae). Psyche 87, 325336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oyafuso, A., Arakaki, N., Sadoyama, Y., Kishita, M., Kawamura, F., Ishimine, M., Kinjo, M. and Hirai, Y. (2002) Life history of the white grub Dasylepida sp. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), a new and severe pest on sugarcane on the Miyako Islands, Okinawa. Applied Entomology and Zoology 37, 595601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Partridge, L. and Farquhar, M. (1981) Sexual activity reduces lifespan of male fruit flies. Nature 294, 580582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooney, J. and Lewis, S. M. (1999) Female mating receptivity inhibited by injection of male-derived extracts in Callosobruchus chinensis. Behavioral Ecology 10, 97104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadoyama, Y., Oroku, H. and Nakamori, H. (2001) Injury of sugar cane roots by the white grub, Dasylepida sp. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), in the Miyako Islands. Japanese Journal of Applied Entomology and Zoology 45, 8991(in Japanese with English abstract).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takami, Y. (2007) Spermatophore displacement and male fertilization success in the ground beetle Carabus insulicola. Behavioral Ecology 18, 628634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, S., Yukuhiro, F., Yasui, H., Fukaya, M., Akino, T. and Wakamura, S. (2008) Presence of larval and adult diapauses in a subtropical scarab beetle: graded thermal response for synchronised sexual maturation and reproduction. Physiological Entomology 33, 334345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, S. and Zhu, D.-H. (2003) Phase-related differences in mating strategy of a locust (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 96, 498502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wakamura, S., Yasui, H., Akino, T., Yasuda, T., Fukaya, M., Tanaka, S., Maeda, T., Arakaki, N., Nagayama, A., Sadoyama, Y., Kishita, M., Oyafuso, A., Hokama, Y., Kobayashi, A., Tarora, K., Uesato, T., Miyagi, A. and Osuga, J. (2009 a) Identification of (R)-2-butanol as a sex attractant pheromone of the white grub beetle, Dasylepida ishigakiensis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), a serious sugarcane pest in the Miyako Islands of Japan. Applied Entomology and Zoology 44, 231239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wakamura, S., Yasui, H., Mochizuki, F., Fukumoto, T., Arakaki, N., Nagayama, A., Uesato, T., Miyagi, A., Oroku, H., Tanaka, S., Tokuda, M., Fukaya, M., Akino, T., Hirai, Y. and Shiga, M. (2009 b) Formulation of highly volatile pheromone of the white grub beetle Dasylepida ishigakiensis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) for development of monitoring trap. Applied Entomology and Zoology 44, 579586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamane, T., Miyatake, T. and Kimura, Y. (2008 a) Female mating receptivity after injection of male-derived extracts in Callosobruchus maculatus. Journal of Insect Physiology 54, 15221527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yamane, T., Katsuhara, Y. and Miyatake, T. (2008 b) Female mating receptivity inhibited by injection of male-derived extracts in Callosobruchus chinensis. Journal of Insect Physiology 54, 501507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhu, D.-H. and Tanaka, S. (2002) Prolonged precopulatory mounting increases the length of copulation and sperm precedence in a locust, Locusta migratoria (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 95, 370373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar